From Dust
by ConstructiveWriter
Summary: Danny Phantom already had to deal with the problems of two worlds, so what were more mortal problems to him? Even if they were problems of a magical nature. And Harry Potter's got even more on his plate for his fifth year at Hogwarts.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Harry Potter

* * *

Away from civilization, the full array of stars shone down upon Hogwarts, the full glory of the milky way clear for any of the students (there for the summer) or faculty (almost always there) to see. Professor Sinistra was up on the astronomy tower, cataloguing the heavens with pen, paper, and telescope. Fang looked up at the half moon from by Hagrid's hut. The centaurs in the forest divined the future from the view and several ghosts took time out of their night to enjoy the vista.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore did not have time to enjoy the stars that night, as he sat in his office. The dark lord had returned at the end of the last year and the aging headmaster had to marshal the forces of good to meet him yet again. The old man's heart grew heavy as he went about this buisness; he remembered the last war, all the pain, hopelessness, and sacrifice that was only ended by what could be described as a deus ex machina hinted at by a fresh prophecy.

Had he known it could all be ended by letting Voldemort find the location of the Potters-

No, he would have applied just as much effort, if not more, to keeping them safe. The events of October 31st 1981 were only a blessing because there was victory and peace out of an unexpected tragedy. To have planned that event out would have betrayed everything he, Albus Dumbledore, and the Order of the Phoenix stood for.

He would have stood firm against the terrible temptation to save so many lives by sacrificing two people who were ready to lay down their lives for the cause anyway. He would not have betrayed their trust no matter how great the temptation.

But that was neither here nor there. Right now, he had to deal with stopping the next Death Eater atrocity.

He could hear the staircase outside move and knew that his guests for this evening would soon be arriving. His office door opened and Professor Severus Snape, accompanied by Remus Lupin, walked in.

"Good evening gentlemen," the old wizard said to his colleagues. "Lemon drop?" He offered with a twinkle in his eye.

"No thank you," Lupin replied, dressed in his shaggy second hand robes.

"Why are we here?" Snape asked, completely ignoring the offer. Dumbledore had been hoping to get a rise out of the Potions professor, the man took everything far too seriously. If he would only lighten up a bit, maybe he could start moving past Lily's death.

The old wizard sighed.

"This concerns the matter of Amity Park," he said to the two younger men.

Amity Park, the magical no man's land. A spot filled with the largest concentration of naturally occurring portals to the Spirit World, the Neverner, or the Ghost Zone, as its newest inhabitants were now calling it. The last name was a matter of some debate, especially in Wizarding Britain where the term ghost referred to the shades of wizards bound to the mortal plane. Elsewhere it was used to designate spirits, specters, and shades of all types, from spirits born in and of the Ghost Zone, spirits embodying an idea or concept, or psychic impressions of mortals long dead, given life and power through ectoplasm.

Amity Park had to deal with all types. The infestation of extra worldly entities was so great that the American magical government had quarantined the area and declared it a no man's land several decades ago, even before the local muggles started noticing them. They didn't bother looking for children with magical talents there, they didn't keep any magical law enforcement on hand, detecting any use of magic in the town, and they didn't allow any of their citizens within the town limits.

The town itself was a hot issue throughout all of the Wizarding world. Muggles were being exposed to all forms of magical beings and even some magical artifacts. Even if they couched the whole experience up in scientific jargon they still were exposed to these things daily. Even the world outside Amity Park was starting to take note of the supernatural creatures all around it.

How long until they found out about wizards?

Some hot heads proposed wiping Amity Park off of the map. As if that would solve all their problems. And, as others argued, if a massacre was necessary to keep the Wizarding world hidden, then maybe it was time for humans with magical talents to rejoin humanity as a whole.

A debate of a whole different kettle errupted when wizards found out about the Fentons. Muggles affecting magical beings and magic with their technology? Purebloods and wizard supremacists exploded over that news. And it was the subject of this night's meeting.

"As Professor Snape has informed us, Voldemort has set his eyes westward, towards America. Remus, I trust you are aware of the Fentons?"

"Those Amity Park muggle spirit fighters? Yes, I've heard of them." The werewolf replied.

"Then I assume you also know about the attitude towards them from less than savory elements of our society?"

The former DADA teacher nodded.

"I believe Voldemort is planning to move against them soon, to kill them and destroy their work. It is to that end that I called you here tonight. I wish to ask you to temporarily abandon your attempts at swaying the werewolf community and instead retrieve the Fentons before the Death Eaters can reach them."

"And why did you need me at this meeting?" Snape asked, sneering.

To tell Voldemort of the plan, so that the Death Eaters would kill one or two of the family, the survivors need for vengeance cementing their allegiance to the Order of the Phoenix, giving us access to their technology- No, Dumbledore thought to himself. Not ever. He ruthlessly squashed the idea.

"I need you to keep Voldemort in the dark until Remus has reached Amity Park and had a week to convince the Fentons to leave, after which you are to tell him about Remus's visit, leaving out the reasons for his trip, to reinforce your image as a double agent," Dumbledore told his short tempered friend. "If Remus cannot get them to leave within a week, then I doubt he can get them to leave at all. And we cannot afford to spend any resources guarding them. They will have to stand on their own feet from then on. At best we can fool them as to our reasons and buy the Fentons time."

"I understand," Snape replied. Intelligence work was a dirty business and there was always only so much you could do.

"Is there anything else?" Lupin asked, getting ready to rise from his seat.

"Yes, there is one other thing. Do you know of the spirit known as Danny Phantom?"

"I've heard of him," the shapeshifter responded.

"This is a secondary objective. I would like for you to recruit this spirit to our cause."

"Do you think he will join? From what I've heard, he seems to stick to Amity Park. I always thought he was some sort of humanoid genius loci."

"I have received some reports that state he was spotted outside of the town. I have a conjecture to his nature you see. I have reason to believe he is something of a... hybrid spirit if you will, called a halfa by many entities. A combination of genius loci and the muggle idea of 'superheros'. He may be willing and able to join our cause and I see no reason why we shouldn't take the chance to add him to our ranks. And if you can convince the Fentons to come, he may decide to come over here to protect them, as they are people of his town."

"Do you have any advice on how to recruit him?"

"None, except to appeal to his better nature, and the fact that Death Eaters will be intruding on his town," Dumbledore replied. "If you gentlemen have no further questions, then may I suggest that this meeting be adjourned?"

* * *

It was a normal day for Danny Phantom/Fenton. He was currently being hurled through a wall by the shock-wave from other worldly explosives, their ethereal green light illuminating his flight path.

"Finally, today I will have your hide ghost child!" The ghost hunter in the high tech armor, Skulker shouted.

"You say that every time," Danny retorted, shaking off some rubble. He turned intangible to avoid some more missiles and flew out at high speeds. He became tangible once more, flying low to avoid his foes attacks. The street below and the buildings to the side were a blur to the half ghost, as he sped at his foe, his legs becoming a ghostly tail.

He flew behind a building and Skulker opened fire when he reappeared. Deadly blasts of energy scarred, scorched, and blasted the streets, sidewalks, and buildings around the boy. A mid sized red blast hit the boy right between the eyes.

Victory, Skulker thought.

And then the boy disappeared with a pop. A duplicate.

Danny Phantom's foes had really hated the day he learned that trick.

The real Danny Phantom became visible again. Skulker, no doubt, had some means of finding in that state and without the decoy duplicate there was no point in wasting energy.

Skulker prepared to fire another missile to force the ghost boy back and Danny saw his chance. He pointed at the projectile and shot a small ecto-blast at it before the hunter could fire it. It exploded, taking out the launcher, and send Skulker tumbling to the ground below.

"I'll get you for that halfa!" Skulker cursed, whipping out a ghostly high tech gun. He pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He pulled the trigger again. Still nothing. The hunter looked at the end of the barrel. It was covered in ice.

"I hate you so very much," Skulker moaned before the gun exploded. The world was engulfed in green and purple light, multicolored smoke and bits of metal going everywhere. When the commotion cleared Skulker's puny true form was visible.

"The feeling's mutual," Danny replied, whipping out a Fenton Thermos. He unscrewed the cap and a beam of blue-white light shot out, surrounded by concentric rings of a similar color. It sucked up his spectral foe and trapped him within the metal cylinder.

Danny sighed, closed his glowing green eyes for a moment, and wiped one white gloved hand across his forehead, brushing strands of his shockingly white hair as he did so. He held the thermos close to his chest, right by the white logo emblazoned on his black suit, a stylized D P, and then took off to find his way back to Tucker and Sam.

He found his two friends running towards where the fight with Skulker had ended up. Sweat, from both the summer heat and running, had soaked through parts of Tucker's long sleeved yellow shirt and long pants. Sam was better off, her bare midriff helped to offset the heat retention from her black and purple skirt, black leggings, and black tank top.

Danny forced himself not to watch as a drop of glistening sweat rolled down the curve of her neck.

"Didya get him?" Tucker asked, panting. Danny held up the thermos and shook it. It made a metallic rattling sound.

"Hurry up and turn back before somebody sees you with us," Sam said, looking around for any witnesses. There were none. Whether they thought of him as a hero or villain, people knew that when Danny Phantom showed up, things tended to be wrecked. The people of Amity Park had figured out that they had to run at that point.

Blue tinted white rings formed around the halfa's waist, one heading up and the other down. Where the rings passed, the boy changed. When the transformation was complete, a black haired, blue eyed boy in a white tee shirt and jeans remained. Danny Fenton stood where Danny Phantom had been floating a minute ago.

"Ah summer vacation. No need to make excuses to get out of school-" Danny began, stretching in the sun.

"Not that you bother with those any more, thanks to duplication," Sam pointed out.

"Or deal with homework-"

"We've got summer homework," Tucker pointed out.

"Or friends raining on my parade-"

"Oh hahaha," Sam said, gently punching Danny's arm. "Let's just go to your place and stuff Skulker back into the Ghost Zone."

"Maybe nothing else will bother me for the rest of the summer," Danny sighed.

* * *

Long distance apparition was a tricky skill to master, but Remus Lupin hadn't been a Hogwarts professor solely due to Dumbledore's charity. He ended up in Boston, the seat of the American magical government and checked in with the authorities there. They gave him dosage of the Wolfsbane potion, standard procedure for any werewolf. Remus also received a list of locations where he would be able to pick up another does, and a list of 'preserves' where he could spend the full moon in lieu of drinking the potion.

The former professor spent the night in the city and resumed his journey the next day. He made several shorter trips to reach his destination. As a foreign citizen the American magical government had no vested interest in keeping him out of the no man's land that was Amity Park.

Remus Lupin took a deep breath. It was now or never. Time to enter the closest place on earth to the realm of the spirits.

He checked over his supplies one last time. Most instant casts spells or evocations as some called them, would be useless against beings of the Nevernever. And Lupin didn't have time to do any ritual magic, long-spells, or enchant any items that could help him. However, Dumbledore had thought of a solution.

Ofudas purchased from eastern wizards. The power of a ritual contained in a small slip of paper. Perfect for one time usage. The downside was that they were hideously expensive, and they had only been able to purchase a limited number.

He had no clue as to how the otherworldly entities would react to a wizard in their presence. He hoped that they'd simply ignore him.

Now, how to find the Fentons.

* * *

Well that was easy. Who'd have guessed that they'd have a big sign indicating where they worked?

Now how to approach them...

Honest, straight, and to the point.

He knocked on the door, mentally reviewing the names of the family. Son named Daniel, daughter named Jazz, mother named Maddie, father named Jack.

The door opened and a boy with blue eyes and black hair greeted him. The son then.

"Daniel Fenton, come with me if you want to live." Lupin didn't understand why Daniel buried his face in his palm and groaned at that statement.

* * *

Great, weirdos making Terminator references. And Danny had been hoping for some quiet time with Sam (and Tucker) too.

And even better, it turned out that this weirdo was a wizard, a fact he demonstrated by turning a couple of small house hold items into animals and back. Danny had encountered magical artifacts, magic using ghosts, and the ghosts of wizards, but never a live magic user. Honestly though, he probably should have seen it coming.

Lupin, all of the Fentons, Sam, and Tucker were all sitting around the Fenton's kitchen table, with tea provided by the visiting Englishman. Danny wasn't sure what tea drinking etiquette was, so he just did whatever Sam did. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Tucker doing the same thing.

"So, Mr. Lupin..." Maddie began. "Why have wizards suddenly decided to visit us? Do you need help ghost hunting?"

"Why would- Oh, right, excuse me," said the wizard. "I forgot about a difference in our terminology."

"Huh?" Danny voiced his confusion.

"We wizards tend to use the term 'ghost' to refer to the shades of wizards bound to the mortal plane, utterly powerless and harmless. We generally call the entities you have to deal with spirits, specters, or some other designation depending on the type." Lupin replied. "Recently there has been debate about what term to use, especially since many of the entities who dwell in the spirit realm have started calling it the Ghost Zone."

"I see," Maddie replied. "Then why are you here?"

The werewolf paused for a moment, taking a sip of tea, as he thought about the best way to approach the subject.

"You know the muggle stereotypes about wizards?" He began. "Old men in robes? Out of date?" Everyone nodded. "Well, apply that stereotype to the whole of wizard society and you can get a general idea of what its like."

"What do you mean by that?" Jazz asked, sipping her own tea.

"We're a backwards society, closer to your Victorian age then the current one. We've got people obsessed with blood purity, wizarding supremacists, and people terrified of muggles-"

"Muggles?" Sam asked.

"Non-magical people," Remus clarified. "Terrified of them because of ancient history and ignorance. It's not always a pleasant place to live. And in England it gets even better. We have problems with corruption at the highest levels of our government and a newly resurrected Dark Lord, He-who-must-not-be-named, Lord Voldemort, who's a blood purity fanatic and a wizarding supremacist, who's return the Ministry is devoting all their efforts to ignoring."

"That's awful," Jack said, cleaning up his crushed teacup and spilled tea, "but you still haven't said what it has to do with us Fentons."

"I'm getting to that. Do you know what the American magical government considers your town?"

"I'm getting the feeling that's it's not a good thing," Tucker said, grinning nervously.

"Amity Park has been designated a magical no man's land due to the number of spirits here. You've had everything from poltergeists, to elementals, spirits without a name, and beings like the Fright Knight and Pariah Dark who are worshiped as dark gods in some parts of the world. The government doesn't want to get involved. They've pled that it is impossible to enforce the International Statute of Secrecy in this area, and thus un-obliviated muggles have seen magical creatures repeatedly. Its a bit of a hot topic in the wizarding world."

"And then," Remus continued, "these two muggles develop technology that can affect magical creatures as powerful as some of the spirits plaguing this town, and through that, magic itself."

"And I'm guessing that the wizarding supremacists don't like this." Jazz observed.

"No, they don't don't." Lupin agreed.

"Great, Nazi wizards don't like us. Let me guess, they're coming to kill us." Danny groaned. "And this was looking to be a peaceful summer too."

"I'm afraid so," Remus replied, using the context to get a vague idea of what the word Nazi meant. "And that's why I'm here. I'm with the organization that's standing against, Voldemort, He-who-must-not-be-named-"

"Why mustn't he be named?" Sam asked. "Did he do something magical with his name."

"No, but his name carries a great deal of fear with it. Only a few of us say his name."

"But doesn't refusing to say his name make it even worse? You sure he didn't cast a spell on his name or something?" Sam asked, one eyebrow raised.

"If he did do something to his name then I don't know about it. And, incidentally young lady, you sounded a great deal like my boss just now."

"Oh. I bet she's a kick-ass witch." Sam said proudly.

"Actually he's an ancient wizard." Sam deflated a bit at this news.

"But as to the reason I'm here, I'd like to offer you all protection against the Death Eaters on behalf of the Order of the Phoenix."

"What does this protection entail," Maddie asked, leaning forward.

"You'd come back with me to Britain and stay at one of our safe houses," Remus answered.

"And if we refuse? If we decide to stay and fight?"

"Then there's nothing we can do. Our spies report that there are no current plans regrading you, but that Voldemort has been setting his sights westward. You'd be safe for the rest of the week, but after that Voldemort will know of my visit, but not why I came. Hopefully I can distract him with my secondary objective and he'll leave you alone, but if that doesn't work..." Lupin didn't need to say what the consequences would be out loud.

"What's your other task," Jazz quickly changed the subject.

"I'm to try and see if its possible to recruit the spirit known as Danny Phantom."

"That menace? Why would you-" Jack began, but Lupin cut him off.

"I don't know what history you have with the spirit, but all reports indicate that, at the very least, he is not totally malevolent."

"What do you mean by that?" Maddie asked angrily.

"I mean the town is still standing. And no offense to you or your skills, but if a spirit as strong as Phantom was malevolent he could easily destroy this town without appearing until it was too late. All it would take is some subtle sabotages here and there and he could start a city wide fire. And while you're focused on that he could attack you and wipe you out with ease."

Jack and Maddie paled. They hadn't even thought of a ghost using mundane strategies to attack them.

"And we've heard from some brave shades who ventured close to here, that he seems to want to protect this town. Many of your own already see him as a hero, correct?"

"Yes," Maddie admitted, "after the Pariah Dark incident half the town started to hail him as a hero."

"He's a spirit who went up against what some consider an evil god and managed to reseal him, a considerable victory even if he needed to steal your..." Lupin struggled to think of the muggle term for enchanted but failed. "Special armor to do so."

"He wouldn't have gotten it if someone hadn't knocked me out and tried to sacrifice themselves instead," Jack pouted.

"Or if someone hadn't knocked me out," Maddie grumbled.

"I'm going to have to ask about that incident later," Remus said, grinning. "But I digress. My boss wants to see if he could be convinced to aid us, or if its even possible for him to aid us."

"What do you mean by that?" Danny asked, genuinely curious. He wanted to know what the wizards thought of his alter ego.

"We don't exactly know what his nature is. My boss has hypothesized that he is some sort of a combination of genius loci and something born of you culture's 'superheros'. This could present a rather large problem."

"What do you mean?" Tucker asked.

"You see, a genius loci is the spirit of a location or a guardian spirit for the location. If Danny Phantom is part genius loci then it may be impossible for him to leave Amity Park. Though if he's not purely a genius loci, and he's following and protecting people from this town..."

"You think that he could come with them," Jazz finished.

"Exactly. And, at the very least, I could warn him about the Death Eater threat," Remus continued.

"I'm still not sure about Phantom, but how bad are these Death Eaters?" Maddie asked.

"Could we kick their butts?" Jack asked excitedly.

"Maybe, I have no idea of your capabilities," Remus replied. "But during the last war they cowed a nation and were killing us members of the Order off one by one. We're better prepared for this round, but they're not a foe you should take lightly."

"We'd like to take some time to think about this," Maddie told the former professor.

"Of course. Do you know of somewhere I can stay in the meantime?"

"You can sleep in our guest room. It's the least we can do."

"Thank you ma'am," Remus respectfully bowed his head. Danny saw that the hairs on the back of his neck were sticking up.

"Are you nervous?" He asked the visitor. When the teacher looked at him quizzically, he said, "your neck hairs-"

"Ah. No, I'm merely sensing the magic in the house. This whole town reeks of it, but its particularly potent here. I'm guessing it's from the inventions."

Jack and Maddie looked at each other and then at Lupin.

"We keep those down in the lab. Which is shielded. No energy should be escaping from our inventions. Could it be something to do with ghosts."

"No, it doesn't feel-" Smell actually, but no need to reveal his lycanthropy right now, "-inhuman like that. Are you sure its not from your inventions?"

"Yes," and now Maddie and Jack were staring at him intently. "Do you have any clue what it could be from."

"If I had to guess then I would say that it's from an untrained wizard spending long periods of time here..." Gears began to spin in Lupin's head. "And this is a no man's land..." He turned to Danny and Jazz, pulling out his wand. "Could you two do me a favor? I need you two to wave this, one at a time."

Jazz complied with the odd command first, giving the wand a wave. Nothing happened.

Danny complied next. Multicolored sparks shot out the end, filling the top of the room with rainbow fireworks.

"I see," Lupin said. "It would appear that I'm sensing Danny's accidental magic. Danny, have you been experiencing a lot of unusual accidents throughout your life?"

Recently, sure, Danny thought, but he didn't say that out loud. It had been because of his ghost powers not magic.

"Sort of..."

"Mr. Lupin," Maddie's voice and expression were gravely serious. "Is it possible that Danny is responsible for our success? That his magic is what makes our inventions work?"

"Possibly. Danny, how do you feel about your parent's work?"

"Currently, I really like it," Danny admitted. "But before ghosts became public knowledge I hated the stuff," he continued, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"No Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, if anything his magic may have made it more difficult for your inventions to work," Lupin said. "His uncontrolled magic would have reacted to his unconscious desires. And its no wonder there's the feel of so much magic in this place."

"You sound like its unusual," Jazz observed, taking the revelation of Danny magic in stride. She already knew he was half ghost, what was magic after that.

"Sort of. Most wizards and witches start training at the age of eleven, but since you've been residing in a no man's land, the American government must have missed you." Lupin explained. "I've never run into this situation before."

"Does that mean that some of my classmates could be wizards too?" Danny asked excitedly. He was currently torn between nervousness, due to him gaining yet more power, and excitement, because, come on Magic! He could do all sorts of cool things with that. And he could have an excuse for his parents as to why he kept running off.

"Certainly, but-"

"Could you test Sam and Tucker?"

"I don't see the harm in that," Lupin said, handing his wand to Tucker, who gave it a wave.

Nothing happened.

Looking a little dejected, Tucker passed the wand to Sam. She gave it a wave. Purple sparks shot out the other end.

"Awesome! I'm a witch! This is so goth!" Sam cackled. "I can't wait to get a cauldron and a black cat!"

"I wasn't expecting that," Remus admitted, taking his wand back. "But nothing about this town is normal..."

"If we go with you, would Danny receive training for his magic?" Jack asked suddenly.

"Certainly. He could go to Hogwarts."

"You can guarantee this?"

"My boss is the headmaster of the school."

Everyone was a bit taken aback by that. Remus looked at their surprised faces.

"What's so surprising about that? You'd need powerful witches and wizards to teach people how to use magic and he is the only one Voldemort ever feared."

"I guess," Tucker admitted. "But I was expecting him to have a more badass position."

"Being the head of a magical school is pretty 'badass'." Remus replied.

"Are you a professor there?" Jazz asked. "Since he's your boss and all."

"I used to be. Now I'm just a volunteer in the order."

"We'll go," Maddie decided then and there.

"Well that is very good news," Lupin said, taking another sip of his tea and beaming. "When will you be ready to leave."

"By tomorrow," Jack replied.

"Perfect. It gives me some time to go find Phantom. Do you two know of anyway of contacting him?"

"Like a ghost signal?" Tucker said giggling.

"Or the location of his Haunt of Solitiude," Sam said laughing.

"Maybe you could call his Ghost-Phone!" Danny joked, joining his friends in their laughter.

"I"m afraid I don't get the what's so funny," the perplexed professor admitted.

"Superhero references. Pay them no mind." Jazz replied, rolling her eyes. "I've got an idea on how to contact him..."

"You do? What have you been up to young lady!" Jack demanded, pulling out heavy anti-ghost weaponry. "If that ghost boy's been-"

"Nothing like that Daddy," Jazz said, shooting him a glare. "I just want to try and put the word out that someone's looking to talk to Phantom. I'm pretty sure he'll hear it." Considering that he was at the table, listening to the conversation, it was a pretty safe bet that he would.

"That's better than anything I've got planned," Remus said, finishing off his tea. "Ms-" The professor turned to Sam.

"Mason. Sam Mason."

"Ms. Mason, the Hogwarts offer is open to you as well. In fact I'd also like to ask Tucker to come along."

"Why? It's not like I've got magical powers."

"You are a known friend of Danny and the Death Eaters might try to get to him through you." Tucker seemed surprisingly blasé at that revelation.

"Alright. But we'll need to have something to fool our parents."

"I'll go an explain the situation to them this evening. I'll need your addresses." Lupin requested.

"We could just show you there," Sam suggested. Lupin shook his head.

"I'd rather not risk it. I've got no ideas how the spirits in this town will react to a wizard among them. By the way, I forgot to ask, does this house have anti-spirit defenses?"

"Yes," Maddie informed him, "why?"

"I'd rather not have a bunch of otherworldly entities attacking me while I sleep," Remus replied.

"Couldn't you just fight them off?"

"Not in a head to head confrontation. I'd need time to preform a ritual or a long spell to deal with them, and you can't do that while they're tearing you in half. I did happen to come prepared-" He took out the ofudas. "The power of a ritual or long spell contained in a piece of paper. Perfect for dealing with spirits on the fly. But expensive. I only have so many and no time to make more."

"We'll turn on the ecto-shield then. But it would make it difficult for Phantom to find you."

"I'll stay outside while I wait for him then," Lupin shrugged. "Or I might run into him at Sam or Tucker's houses. I don't know if he can sense me."

Danny thought about it for a moment. His ghost sense wasn't going off, so he guessed that he couldn't sense wizards, at least not currently. He didn't know if any of his friends or enemies could either. Hmmm... how to approach Remus Lupin as Danny Phantom...

There was no question about Danny Phantom helping this Order of the Phoenix. If this Voldemort guy and those Death Eaters were planning to come after his family and friends, well then he'd just have to beat the snot out of them. And save a bunch of other innocents.

And learn magic. It was a win-win situation.

"Alright, I think its time to go visit Sam and Tucker's families," Lupin said rising. "Any more questions that I should answer first?"

"Nope," Jack said also getting up. "We'll just take this time to turn off the portal."

"Portal?"

"Yeah, the portal to the Ghost Zone."

* * *

Remus's brief fit was easily dealt with, and they were able to stop his rants about 'opening gates to the realm of gods, demons, and things beyond ken of us mere mortals' or about how it was 'bad enough that there were naturally occurring temporary portals everywhere in this town, but then you had to go and make a permanent one' and then everyone had another round of calming tea.

Remus then eagerly left with Sam and Tucker to go talk with their families. Maddie and Jack went downstairs to safely turn off the portal, gather their blueprints, and pack their equipment. Danny and Jazz were sent to pack there things.

"So..." Jazz spoke up, as they climbed up the stairs. "How you going to approach this?"

"I thought I'd turn intangible while he waits outside and rise out of the ground. Maybe try to go for a nice dramatic entrance at the same time." Her little brother responded. "I know, I'll use my ice powers to-"

"Not that," Jazz said, shooting him an exasperated look. "I meant this is a great time to break the news about your alter ego to mom and dad."

"Nope," Danny replied in a voice that was forced to be cheerful.

"It's a great opportunity," Jazz insisted, "and from what you've told me about the Reality Gauntlet incident-"

"Yes, I know they'll accept me," Danny replied, rolling his eyes. "I was an idiot for worrying about that in the first place."

"No. It was a valid concern and all adolescents go through that phase," Jazz told him. "But if you're not worried about them accepting you, then why aren't you telling them? They'd give you a lot of help-"

"And that's what I'm afraid of," Danny said, throwing up his arms. "They'll try and help me and they'll get themselves hurt. Lord knows how many times its nearly happened to Tucker and Sam. I've tried every way I know of to try and get them to stop helping me, but none of them worked."

"Oh, was that the reason for your guy's most recent spat? You were being a jerk to them to drive them away, so you could keep them safe."

"No, actually that was about some ill thought out jokes about Sam's weight. It was all Tucker's fault. I only thought that there might've been a bug on the back of her skirt, not that her butt had gotten bigger, that's why I was looking. The fight before that one is what you're thinking of. They saw through what I was doing after a day."

"Oh." Jazz let the subject drop. Pushing it wouldn't help at this point.

"I'm not dragging mom and dad into that as well. Do you still have Dani's number?" Danny changed the subject.

"Yeah. You going to ask her to watch the town while you're gone?"

"Yep. I'll have to give her a spare key so she can shack here. I should also probably tell Valerie that I'm going."

"That Danny Fenton's going away or that Danny Phantom's going away?" Jazz asked, a knowing look in her eye. They paused by the door to Danny's room.

"Both actually. But separately. Hopefully she won't shoot my ghost form on sight." He gave a rueful chuckle. "But she sees me as more of a rival then an enemy now. And she likes Dani. Together they should be able to protect the town from the worst of the dangers. And once my rouge's gallery learns that I'm gone for a while, they won't come as often."

"What are you going to do about Vlad?" Jazz asked. "You know he's not going to like both you and Mom disappearing on him."

Danny thought for a moment about the best way to handle the situation.

No, punching the older half ghost wasn't the best way to do it. Probably. Most likely. Maybe he should give it a try just to see if it would work...

"I'm actually going to ask you for advice on that one," he said.

"First magic powers and now you're listening to your big sister," Jazz shook her head. "Will wonders never cease."

"Oh, hahaha. What should I do about Vlad?"

Jazz thought about it for a moment.

"Go give him the barest details. We're in danger, we're going into hiding with some people who can help, you're going to help them as Phantom, I assume you're also going to keep your identity secret from the wizards as well?"

Danny nodded. Jazz rolled her eyes and continued.

"Then also tell him that. You might want to tell him that you'll be getting training only they can provide, I don't know how that'll go over with him. Don't mention that they're wizards. And let him know that we're coming back when it's all over."

"You really think that will work?"

"We just need to keep him off our back long enough to go into hiding and prevent him from meddling. Other than slapping the Specter Deflector on him and knocking him out, I can't think of a better way."

"Or I could do both!" Danny rubbed his hands together gleefully. Jazz rolled her eyes.

"Just go talk to him after you talk to Lupin. And send a duplicate, just in case he tries something."

"Alright. And what if he decides to follow us?"

"We have an ace up our sleeve, a wizard with magical anti-ghost equipment." Jazz smirked. "Worst case scenario, we slap an ofuda on him and run away."

"I can't believe I'm going to start worrying about pieces of paper now," the half human groaned.

"But you'll also be learning how to make those pieces of paper," Jazz pointed out. "So how does it feel to learn that you've got magic along with your ghost powers?"

"Actually I wondering if they're connected somehow," Danny said, opening his door and starting to pack. "Like the only reason I didn't die getting my ghost powers is because of my magic, or if the magic's a side effect of the ghost powers-"

"If you're with the wizards you should probably call them spirit powers," Jazz commented.

"Oh, and learning that two of the ghosts I went up against are considered gods." Danny shivered. "That's real comforting."

"You managed to beat them," Jazz pointed out, leaning against the door frame.

"Barely. I only resealed Pariah Dark and Fright Knight's still out there. I can't take him on head to head."

"But you did beat them. I wonder if they're considering Danny Phantom to be a god?"

"Worshipers. Just what my ego needs."

"You'd have people willing to do your homework for you."

"Worshipers. Just what I need," Danny said brightening up.

"Nah, anyone who would worship you couldn't do your homework for you."

"Oh shut up. Don't you have to go pack too?"

"Fine little brother. I'll leave to ponder matters concerning your flock for now."

* * *

Remus Lupin waited outside the Fenton home for Phantom to contact him. The meetings with the Foleys and Masons had gone well. The Foleys had been a typical example of a muggle family accepting their introduction into the magical world with grace and goodwill. Except for the part about their son's life being in danger. They had reacted with the appropriate anger to that part.

The Mason meeting had been a bit more unusual. Sam's parents didn't accept her talents or situation at first, but when the grandmother said something about tracing their ancestry back to Salem and from there to some English family, they changed their minds. From Lupins point of view they had treated the revelation of her magical talents like another teenage phase. The werewolf could tell that they cared greatly about their daughter, but didn't know how to go about actually caring for her in the best manner. It would be good for them to spend some time apart.

After that he had returned to the Fentons, promising to pick Sam and Tucker up in the morning. He had asked his hosts to turn on their anti-ghost shield so he could retreat to safety if some hostile specter decided to try and take a bite out of him.

The former professor rubbed his arms. It was getting unusually chilly for the summer. He would've sworn that he could see frost forming on the lampposts next to him... he could see frost forming on those lampposts. The wizard looked around, his fight or flight reaction activating on fight mode, and drew his wand.

The temper dropped suddenly, making it even chiller than it had been before. An ethereal green light lit up the street, radiating from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Remus frantically searched for the source of the changes.

"Yo." The wizard jumped three feet into the air when the voice spoke up behind him. He whirled as he came down and his eyes met a pair of glowing green eyes. They belonged to what appeared to be a floating boy with a mischievous smirk on his face.

"Phantom," Lupin wheezed. "You- you- gave me quite a scare there."

"Yeah. You okay? I only wanted to try the whole dramatic ghostly entrance thing, make you jump a little."

"I can safely say that I jumped a little at the very least," Lupin grinned, regaining control of his breathing. "It's alright. My best friends were a pair of pranksters. I've been through worse."

"So I heard that you wanted to talk to me. And what's with the stick?"

"It's a wand."

"You mean like for magic? Like what wizards and witches use."

"Correct. I am a wizard."

"Can't say that I've meet your kind before," Phantom lied. "I mean I've run into a magical artifact that turned people into a spectral dragon, a couple of magic using ghosts, the ghosts of a couple magic users, and a couple other things, but never a living wizard. I was wondering if you guys were still around."

"Well I can assure you that we are. But, getting down to business, I'm afraid that our continued existence isn't the best news for you."

"Oh. Why not?"

"Because it threatens one of the families under your care, the Fentons."

"Is that why we're hanging out in front of their house?"

"Yes. I'm afraid they'e being targeted by members of our society. I've been sent by an organization with an offer of protection for them and they've accepted. I'll be taking them back with me to England tomorrow."

"What's that got to do with me?" Danny felt proud of himself in that moment. He was getting good at the whole secret identity thing and revealing that he knew things, that by all rights, he shouldn't have known.

"We'd like to ask for your help as well in dealing with these members of our society, if it's possible." The older halfbreed told the younger halfbreed. "I don't know if you're bound to the town-"

"I'm not. I just like the place and all the troublesome ghosts tend to come here."

"In that case, I'd like to formally ask you if you'd like to join the Order of the Phoenix in our efforts opposing the newly resurrected Dark Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters," Lupin said, extending his hand to the spirit.

"Depends. Just how bad is this Voldemort guy?"

"He terrorized wizarding Britain for several years before his defeat, nearly brought the nation to its knees, and has aims towards world domination. He is a wizarding supremacist of the worst kind, uses blood purity ideology to justify his lust for power and gain legitimacy in the eyes of his followers, is cruel, violent, and evil in the worst kind of way. He thinks nothing of torturing and killing innocents, even children. In fact he was defeated last time while trying to kill a baby."

"And he's after people in my town?" Danny Phantom extended his hand. "Hey, I'll join you in taking this guy down. But I'd like to speak with whoever's in charge before I start doing any missions or anything."

"I'm sure he'll insist on meeting you right away. Danny Phantom, welcome to the Order of the Phoenix."

They shook hands.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Harry Potter

Author's Note: It's certainly easier to write things when you don't have to worry about both a character's speech patterns and foreign slang. As I found out to misfortune here.

* * *

"So how's this going to work?" Phantom asked.

"I've got to get the Fentons out of here first," Lupin informed the ghost boy. "I should be back here at, say 5pm tomorrow?"

"Works for me. I'll see you then." And with that, Danny turned invisible and sped away.

He surreptitiously duplicated himself, and went off in two directions.

One of the odd things he had found out about duplication was that if you did it a certain way, there wasn't an 'original' so to speak. The original would simply be whichever of him that didn't get hit too hard. And when you did it like that, a ghost could regain all the memories from the duplicate after it was destroyed or absorbed. There were other ways of duplicating one's self with different results, such as one that allowed you to make a puppet of the duplicate, but Danny liked this version for its potential uses in keeping his identity secret.

One duplicate sped off towards Vlad's house. If it didn't get destroyed by the older halfa, then that would be the Danny that would meet Mr. Lupin tomorrow. The remaining Danny returned home.

* * *

Lupin walked back into the Fenton home to be met with the expectant gazes of Jack and Maddie.

"Did you find him?" Maddie asked.

"Do you need us to kick his ectoplasmic behind?" Jack asked, pulling out some extremely heavy looking anti ghost weaponry.

"No, no, no, no, put those, ah... guns, yes that's the term, away!" Lupin said hand held up in front of him protectively. "Yes I met him and we had a productive conversation. I convinced him to join us."

"Really? You weren't out there for very long, relatively speaking," Maddie observed.

"I never expected it to take very long," Lupin informed his host. "And it didn't, but for reasons I didn't anticipate."

"Huh?" That was Jack, looking confused.

"How much do you know about spirits. Not their physical composition or powers, but about their personalities or how they think?" The wizard asked the hunters.

"We haven't done much research into that subject," Maddie admitted. "We had to crack several other problems first, such as ectoplamsic containment and flow, particle behavior when crossing dimensions, the interplay between the different types of spectral energies, trying to match up suspected origins with the different compositions-"

"I see. Well then, let me give you some enlightenment on the subject. I don't know what you've encountered here, but the general rule is, and there are many exceptions to this, that the more powerful a spirit is the more it is bound to its nature. For example, lesser ice spirits may be fully sentient, self aware, and intelligent, with many different desires and the ability to make choices that would go against their natures, like heating up a room instead of cooling, and can avoid self destructive tendencies. Greater ice spirits, who bring winter wherever they go, have less awareness and choice. If they can think they couldn't even imagine heating up a room instead of cooling it. If they can't, they generally have slightly less self awareness than most animals."

"Really?" Maddie looked doubtful.

"You could think of spirits of that magnitude to be the incarnation of natural forces," Remus offered. "But they generally don't last very long, so don't worry about them."

"Why don't they stick around?" Jack asked. "If they're so powerful?"

"Are you familiar with Norse mythology?" The wizard asked the hunters. "The tales of Ragnarok?'

"Vaguely," Maddie said. "The gods fight the ice giants, the fire giants and a bunch of monsters."

"And it ends with a fire giant reducing everything to ashes." Lupin said. "Including himself. Most of those spirits eventually end up destroying themselves. That's where the old Norse tales come from. And most spirits who avoid destroying themselves usually end up being bound by powerful wizards."

"You could really bind an incarnation of winter?" Jack asked, doubtful. "Seal it away?"

"Not sealing it away. Binding it to a task," the werewolf explained. "Keeping with our winter example, you would bind a powerful ice spirit to keep a single location cold. The binding would limit its nature, focusing it to a useful purpose. It takes a great deal of skill and power to do so, but as long as the binding does not go against the spirit's nature, the being wouldn't even notice the magic. Hogwarts for example, has contained four great guardian spirits since its construction, which power the protective spells. They've been there for so long they've become part of the castle."

"I can't really say that we've encountered many ghosts like that," Maddie said, still looking somewhat skeptical.

"As I said there are many exceptions to that rule and I don't know what sort of spirits visit this place," Lupin replied.

"So what does this have to do with Phantom?" Jack asked.

"Considering his what I know of his power and the reports we've received from ghost- shades, sorry- about his personality and deeds, I thought he might've been some sort of guardian spirit. I know you disagree, but this is the intelligence I was given."

"I'll admit that we don't know much about Phantom," Maddie told the wizard. "And we do have a rivalry of sorts going on, so our opinions are definitely biased."

"You should see the look on his face when I threaten to peel him apart, molecule by molecule." Jack smiled widely. "His face is always priceless."

Lupin paled.

"You weren't actually planning to do that to him, where you?" The wizard asked nervously.

"Not totally," Jack reassured the werewolf. "And we'd use a sort of ghostly anesthetic."

"We've also been observing what's he's endured in his fights," Maddie said. "Our dissection would be limited to well within what we've seen him take. And we'd let him heal up before throwing him back into the Ghost Zone."

"Of course if he was possessing somebody and we hit them with the Fenton Peeler, then all bets are off," Jack said. "We still haven't found a way to identify which ghost is overshadowing somebody."

"So you managed to convince Phantom to come by appealing to his nature?" Maddie said, returning to the original topic on conversation.

"Actually no. Turns out he isn't bound by his nature to protect this town, he just choose to." Lupin informed them. "He's one of the numerous exceptions to this rule. I honestly thought that, considering he stood up to Pariah Dark, the being from whom all dark curses which transform humans originated, that he was controlled by his nature. As it happens Phantom is merely courageous, stupidly so."

Standing up to the dark god who had created the werewolf curse. Lupin would have been torn between fleeing in fright and gleefully watch Phantom beat down the entity.

"Curses that transform humans?" Maddie looked curious.

"Like lycanthropy." Remus kept his voice neutral. "That's where his name comes from. He is the dark father of pariahs."

"So werewolves do exist and they're cursed. Develop any cures yet?" Jack looked thoughtful.

"No. We've got potions to manage their conditions, but no cure."

"That's something we'll have to look into then." Maddie nodded in agreement to Jack's words.

Remus wanted to yell at them for their insensitivity, for thinking they could succeed where generations of wizards failed. But he remembered their remarkable technology, the fact that they were muggles, and their genuine desire to help. It would be unproductive to get mad at them.

"I've got another question before we get back to Phantom," Jack Fenton told Remus Lupin. "Is Pariah Dark was as bad as you say he was, why didn't you wizards step in? I know we're in a no man's land, but that guy sounds like a threat to the world."

"We were preparing to, but we barely got word of the situation before it was all over," Lupin replied. "Besides, it is a much harder thing to bind a self-aware spirit, no matter how weak, and to bind a god-" Lupin shuddered. That would've been a situation where Dumbledore and Voldemort would have set aside their differences to work together, along with top wizards from every other country. Seals and spells would have to be renewed, sacrifices made, runes re-carved, and rituals prepared. Pariah Dark alone wouldn't be the most difficult part of the whole thing, a sufficiently powerful and clever wizard, with some time to prepare, plenty of subtlety and secrecy, could have handled him alone. The awakening of other gods, sealed away and sleeping, would have been the bigger threat.

"Is there any particular reason he was smart instead of stupid?" Jack asked.

"He was a god," Lupin answered. "But I guess that's more of a designation for a greater spirit who's self aware than anything else."

"Sometimes there's a reason, spirits of wisdom or knowledge are generally self aware, with Odin One Eye," continued the werewolf. "He was a spirit of lore and of battle. That leads to the second common cause, spirits with dual natures tend to be self aware as a result of the conflicts. Athena, for example, was a spirit with several different natures or domains. Her intelligence was needed to deal with the eventual conflicts between the two natures."

"So all the gods from mythology are real?" Maddie looked both excited and worried.

"Were. Most of them are dead or sleeping. The rest have withdrawn from mortal affairs. Wizards and muggle champions scared them off you see. And to be honest, most of the gods from mythology didn't exist, or at least not like they did in the tales. But we can talk more about this when we're with the Order. Back to Phantom. How old is he?"

"We've seen him around for... I'm not quite sure. A year at least, many two," Maddie informed the werewolf. She looked a little sheepish. "We sometimes get distracted and forget to record these things."

"I see. He may be young and still forming." Lupin frowned. "That could be problematic. I hope Dumbledore can handle it."

"So how'd you convince him to come?" Maddie asked, eager for some insight into the ghost boy's mind.

"I told him that citizens from his town were in danger and about how terrible Lord Voldemort is," Lupin replied. "He then accepted."

"That's unusual." Maddie frowned. "Why'd he accept your offer so easily."

"I've got no idea. He didn't even request much explanation, other than a meeting with my boss." Lupin shrugged. "He might've already known it all and pretended not to."

"Why would he do that?" Jack asked.

"The motivations and desires of spirits are beyond me," Remus replied. "The sentient ones aren't human, they think differently and want different things. I've got no clue as to why he'd hide knowledge. I've got no clue as to why he wouldn't want more if he wasn't hiding any. And in the end, I don't care. He's coming and we can guess about it after getting to know him better."

The werewolf clapped his hands together.

"Now, is there anything I can do to help with the packing?"

* * *

The next morning the Fentons finished packing with Remus's help and the wizard apparated away to fetch Sam and Tucker. He returned with the two of them and their luggage in tow.

They all met in the Fenton living room.

"So, did you get Phantom to come along?" Danny asked. He, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were all doing an admirable job of keeping a straight face as he asked that.

"Yes. It was easier than I expected. His aid will be welcome, especially with the ministry behaving as it has been." Lupin cleared his throat. "But we can discuss this later. Does everybody have everything? All your, ah, technology has been turned off, right?"

"Everything that we're not bringing along is off and in storage," Maddie reassured the wizard. "And we brought the blueprints with us so we can help out with the fight."

"I can assure you that you will not be asked to participate in the fight," Lupin began, but Jack cut him off.

"Just try and stop us. Nobody threatens Jack Fenton's family and gets away with it," the big man shouted, once more pulling out some heavy anti-ghost weaponry.

"I didn't think to ask about this earlier, but where do you keep pulling those guns from? Did you invent something like a bag of holding?" Lupin asked.

Jack looked proud of himself.

"Nothing so grand, but this baby here is a self assembling weapon. I hide the parts all over my body and they put themselves together behind my back when I press this spot, here," Jack pointed to a point on his wrist, "and then bam! Ghost blasting weaponry at the ready!"

"I see. I'm going to have to ask to be a bit less... enthusiastic with it," Lupin said to Jack. "Several members of the Order are accomplished duelists, and you constantly pulling out your weapon might lead to some accidents."

"I'll remember that," Jack replied, putting the weapon away. "So how are we going to get back."

"Via this illegal international portkey that Dumbledore provided me with." Lupin said, pulling out a tin can. Everyone looked at it skeptically.

"Usually we used portkeys sort of like you use trains, not that we don't use trains as well. I mean, since they're the best method of instantaneous transportation for groups, and somewhat difficult to make, we've created a system for using them. We'll leave them around for a group of wizards to take at a designated time. But we can't have muggles stumbling across them and taking them, so we disguise them as junk. It's gotten to be a bit of a habit as you can see."

"What exactly does a portkey do?" Jazz asked. "How do we use it?"

"You just touch it and when it goes to its destination it takes you with it." Lupin explained. "This one is supposed to be activated by me when I'm ready to return. Oh, and one second." He reached into his bag, and pulled out a small bag with a huge opening."

"This is a bag of holding. If everyone would put their luggage in here?" Everybody complied, not acting the least bit surprised when all the suitcases and bags disappeared into the bag.

"Is there anything you needed to take care of with the muggle authorities?" Lupin asked.

"Nothing that we can't do over the phone in England," Maddie answered. "We paid off the mortgage years ago and we can change our address with the Post Office and deal with the situation with school over the phone."

"I don't think we've got a phone at the headquarters," Lupin admitted.

"We'll be staying at your headquarters? I thought we were being taken to a safehouse," Tucker said. He looked like he was trying to hide his excitement at the idea of staying at the headquarters of a secret wizarding organization.

"Our headquarters is a house, and its currently the safest place we've got," Lupin replied. "That's why it's our headquarters. Is that everyone's luggage? I don't know when it will be safe to return here."

Everybody nodded.

"Alright then, finger on the can."

Danny and Sam bumped elbows while reached for the cylinder. They both started, blushed, and looked away from each other, bother reaching again, more cautiously this time.

"Good. And we're off!"

* * *

Interesting. Danny had never expected teleportation to feel like a hook behind his navel, jerking him forward. It was an eye opening experience.

He found himself in on an ordinary street, flanked on either side by houses. His friends and family looked around, a bit bewildered by the trip.

He could vaguely sense something. It wasn't anything that registered on his ghost sense, he couldn't tell how he was sensing or what he was sensing, but the could tell that there was something unusual around here.

"Quick, take this, read it, think about it, and then pass it around," Lupin said, pulling out a piece of paper.

Danny took a look. There was writing on the paper. It said: The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

What did that mean? Danny looked around and- holy shit, that house just squeezed it way between those other two houses. That must have been what he had been sensing. He passed the paper on to Jazz, who was looking curious about his shocked expression.

"How'd that work?"

"Fidelius Charm," Lupin answered. "Dumbledore's the Secret-Keeper, he wrote that note so you guys could get in. I'll have to burn it when you're finished."

"Oh." More gasps behind him as everyone else finished reading the note. "How does it work? I mean I didn't just suddenly notice that house, it just freaking appeared out of nowhere and pushed two other houses to the side!"

"Well, the house is hidden from all but its inhabitants and the Secret-Keeper. The only way for someone to be to even be able to see the house is if the Secret-Keeper tells them of it. Voldemort himself could be walking down this street, right next to numbers eleven and twelve, and he wouldn't be able to do anything."

"That, is awesome!" Sam had wandered up during the explanation. "But why are we staying at your super secret headquarters if you got a charm like that. Couldn't you just stick us in any old house?"

"Well the Fidelius Charm does have two weaknesses," Lupin explained. "The first is the loyalty of the Secret-Keeper. I lost two of my best friends that way. The second is, upon the death of the Secret-Keeper, everyone whom the Secret-Keeper told about the protected location becomes a Secret-Keeper themselves. We've got no doubts about Dumbledore's loyalty or his ability to evade capture. However, he's already the Secret-Keeper for this place and we can't put the same level of trust in anybody else, we don't feel any other safe house would be sufficient."

"This Voldemort guy must really want us dead," commented Danny.

"Your family's accomplishments are flying in the face of several centuries worth of supremacist propaganda," replied Lupin. "And he's not the only one who wants you dead. Some of his followers may take independent action. Anyway, in the event of Dumbledore's death, this house also has several centuries worth of protective enchantments placed upon it."

"Oh. I didn't think we rated your top security." Danny held his hands up to ward off Lupin's odd look. "I mean you're already going out of your way to help us and it's not like we'll be helping out with that Voldemort guy or anything..."

Well the rest of them wouldn't be.

"We said we'd protect you. And we'll do everything in our power to do so." Lupin replied. "Don't worry about it. Now has everybody read the note?"

He was answered by a chorus of affirmations.

"Be forewarned we're still in the process of making this house habitable. It's been abandoned for decades and it used to belong to a particularly dark family." Lupin told the group. "Molly Weasley and her children are currently working around the clock to make it more livable."

He opened the door and everyone entered.

"I like it already," Sam said happily, observing the state of the house.

In many ways it appeared to be a stereotypical haunted house. Dark, smelled of rot, and the little bit of light from the open door showed that the carpet was threadbare and the wallpaper peeling. It also illuminated the old fashioned gas lamp which Lupin proceeded to light.

"Don't touch that curtain," Lupin said, indicating a spot on the wall. Danny took note of the portraits lining the wall- Yikes! They were moving! And not just the old creepy eye trick! - and the one that was curtained off.

They heard footsteps and a red haired woman, followed by a lanky red haired teenage boy, a set of identical red haired twins, and a red haired girl came down the stairs.

"Oh, you're here already. If we had known that you were coming now we would've put off tea for a bit." The woman said to Lupin.

"Tea. But I thought that was in the afternoon-" Danny began, but Sam interrupted him.

"Time difference," she said, gently slapping his arm.

"Oh, and you must be the Fentons. I'm Molly Weasley," the Weasley matriarch introduced herself. "These are my children. The twins are Fred and George."

"Actually we've decided to have it changed to Feorge and Gred," the twins replied in unison. "We were getting bored with the old names."

"Ignore them, they're prats," the girl said, rolling her eyes. "I'm Ginny."

"I'm Ron," the lanky one said.

"Sam Mason." Sam introduced herself.

"Are you a relation of the Fentons?" Molly asked.

"Nah. Turns out I'm a witch. And a target since I'm close to Danny."

"Tucker Foley. Geek not a wizard. Also a target." Tucker told the Weasleys.

"Danny Fenton. Target and wizard as it turns out." Danny shrugged.

"Jazz."

"And we're Maddie and Jack," Mrs. Fenton said, extending her hand to Mrs. Weasley, who shook it.

"It's nice to meet you. My husband's going to have so many questions for you. He's very enthusiastic about muggle technology."

"It would be fascinating to get the wizarding viewpoint technology," Madie said delightedly. "I wonder how people with magic would view a trans-dimensional particle accelerator vs their own methods of stabilizing the boundaries of a wormhole."

"I've got no idea what most of those words mean," Molly said, still smiling. "As I said, you'll have to talk to my husband. Come on, let me show you to your rooms. Ron, Fred, George? Would you get their bags for them?"

"No need Molly," Remus said, taking out the bag of holding. "Dumbledore provided me with this for the trip."

Ron looked at the bag and then looked annoyed.

"Why can't we ever get a bag of holding? The car wouldn't have to be cramped every time we go to Hogwarts!" He complained. "It's not like they're expensive."

"Actually, we're planning on getting one after Fred and George move out," Molly replied.

Ron looked puzzled for a second, and then comprehension dawned.

"Yeah, that would be setting up for a spectacularly horrible thing to happen, wouldn't it," he said, a look of horror growing on his face.

"It's like they have no faith in us," George said to Fred.

"Anyway, show them to there rooms," continued Mrs. Weasley. "Remus, will you be staying?"

"No, I've got to meet with Dumbledore. I need to arrange a meeting and get another portkey."

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Order business. We might tell you later." Remus shot a look at Fentons and friends. "I trust that you can be discreet? Not everybody needs to know about this yet."

"Oh, you mean about-" Danny was shut up by both Sam and Jazz elbowing him.

"Why do they know and we can't?" Ron asked, looking a bit perturbed.

"It's something related to their Amity Park and I'm not saying anything more," Lupin told Ron, who nodded. Lupin said his goodbyes and then left.

"Your rooms are this way, dears," Molly Weasley told the guests. "Let's get you settled in before dinner."

* * *

Danny Phantom floated, invisible, in front of his house. He had left notes for Dani, giving her a quick update, some instructions, and some tips. His meetings with Valerie and Vlad had gone about as well as expected. Vlad had agreed to leave them alone for a little bit, but if they weren't back soon, he would start investigating. The Death Eaters were threatening Danny's mom and that would tick Vlad off if nothing else.

Maybe they'd finish each other off! Yeah, right, as if his life would ever be so easy.

Valerie, after a brief burst of inconclusive violence, had accepted the situation, and had agreed to help Dani look over the town. Between the two of them, Amity Park would be safe. As an added bonus, all the ghosts that came seeking revenge on Danny or to pick a fight with him, would have nothing to draw them to Amity, giving the remaining duo even less work.

Now all he had to do was wait for Lupin to return. The wizard should be arriving any second now-

Yipes! It was a good thing he was invisible, because if Lupin had seen him shoot up like that, his image would have been ruined.

"Phantom?" Lupin called out, looking around. He had arrived right on the Fenton's doorsteps as not to alarm any muggles who might be watching.

"Present and accounted for," the ghost boy replied, becoming visible once more.

"Were you waiting long," the werewolf asked the halfa politely.

"Nah, I was taking care of some things around town first. So how's this going to work?"

Lupin reached into his robes, and took out- an old shoe.

Danny looked at it skeptically. Seeing as the duplicates hadn't rejoined, he had no idea that the tattered piece of footwear was actually a device capable of instantaneous travel between continents, able to take large groups.

"... I don't get it..."

"It's a portkey," Lupin informed the ghost boy. "It teleports and takes everybody who's touching it at the moment with it. This one is set to take us to Hogwarts, Dumbledore's office."

"Hogwarts?" Danny asked, for the sake of his secret identity.

"The british school of magic," Lupin explained. "Dumbledore is the headmaster there. He's looking forward to meeting you."

"Oh." Danny thought for a moment. "Have you used these portkey things on ghosts before?"

"There have never been any recorded incidents of accidents happening when transporting spirits with magical forms of transportation," Lupin replied, avoiding the question. "If you would touch this please?"

Danny shot him a look, letting Lupin know his conversational sidestep hadn't worked. The ghost boy hesitantly reached out and took hold of the shoe. Lupin nodded an then -

* * *

Holy Shit! His ghost sense had never reacted like this before. After the hook, navel, pull sensation that characterized portkey travel, his ghost sense erupted. He hadn't felt anywhere near the sheer number of ghosts here before.

Danny looked around. He was in a large circular room, windows and portraits- Yikes! They were moving! - covered the wall. Complex and delicate looking silver instruments were scattered throughout the room, on various shelves.

By one of the walls there was a desk, and behind that desk was an old man, with a long white beard, twinkling blue eyes behind half moon spectacles, wearing long flowing robes, and a pointy hat.

"Hello Mr. Phantom. I am Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's a pleasure to meet you."

* * *

Albus looked at the newcomer happily. It was always nice to meet someone on the side of the Light and a successful newcomer was always a treat.

"Umm... nice place you got here," the spirit said, rather awkwardly.

"Thank you," Albus replied, inclining his head. "Lemon drop?"

"Sure," Phantom replied, floating over to take the offered piece of candy. The headmaster waved his wand, conjuring up a chair, surprising the spirit. It would seem that the spirit had been telling Remus the truth, the spirit had not had any contact with wizards before.

He immediately thought of a plan that would use that inexperience to tie the spirit's loyalty to him and the Order, all for the Greater Good-

And then Dumbledore forced himself not to think of the plan. He had to remind himself of the lessons he had learned about the Greater Good all those years ago, but he would do his best never to fall into that trap again.

"Before we begin, there's something I'd like to ask you," he said to Phantom. "Do you have any experience with Legilimency?"

"Never heard of it," replied the spirit. "Why, what is it?"

"In the closest muggle term for it would be mind reading, but that is highly inaccurate, at least for the majority of the time," Dumbledore informed him. "For most uses it is merely sensing emotions or memories that are being recalled, oftentimes to discern whether or not an individual is lying."

"What about the rest of the time?"

"One can use it to delve into another's mind. The reason I bring this up is because some of the information I would like to share with you, not today, but eventually, is very sensitive-"

"And you don't want the enemy to pick it out of my head." Phantom nodded. "Makes sense."

"If I may try an experiment? I would like to launch a small probe to see if whatever type of spirit you are has any natural talents for Occlumency."

"Just what would you see?" Phantom asked.

"Nothing. It's a small probe, what I would use on my students. I would sense your stronger emotions, nothing more."

"You read your student's minds? Wow, I'm glad I don't go here."

"I merely sense their emotions, and I only use it when I can't tell from their faces and stances."

"Well, if you'll swear that's all," Phantom said hesitantly.

"I will swear any oath necessary," Albus replied pleasantly. He was forcing himself from thinking about learning about how learning if the specter had natural talents for Occlumency would help identify what type of spirit Phantom was and about what he could do with that knowledge. If Phantom knew what sort of spirit he was, then Dumbledore would force himself to wait for Phantom to tell him. And if Phantom didn't know, Dumbledore would refrain from trying to find out unless Phantom asked him to.

"Fine." When Phantom said the word, Dumbledore used a little Legilimency on Phantom, sensing- absolutely nothing.

"It would appear that Legilimency can't even find you," Dumbledore said happily. After he could be sure that the spirit was trustworthy he could entrust him with several important secrets.

"Ha!" Phantom looked pleased as well. "Another power!"

"I take it you have many powers?"

"Yep! I got-"

"Please do not tell me unless you are absolutely sure the information is necessary. Secrets are power, especially in the wizarding world. Telling me of your powers means that our enemy may be able to figure them out based on the actions I take. During any task you agree to do for the Order, I would like to advise you to use at little of your powers as possible, to keep the enemy ignorant."

Danny scratched the back of his head. He got a bit of what Dumbledore was saying, the way he had been able to keep beating the Fenton inventions was because his parents didn't know his secret identity. But wasn't this taking things too far?

At the very least he should tell him about the powers he more commonly used.

"Alright, I'll keep most of them to myself. But I should at least inform you to a few." The ghost boy told the wizard.

"If you think that is for the best."

"Let's see, there's flight. Last time I got it clocked, I could go about 112 miles per hour, but I've gotten faster since then. Invisibility, intangibility, super strength, don't know how much, and overshadowing."

"Overshadowing?"

"Sort of like possessing somebody for a short time."

"Exactly what does it entail?" Dumbledore was getting alarmed by this power. It definitely didn't fit what he knew of the spirit.

"I control their body for a little bit. I can still use my powers and they don't remember a thing. Why?"

"How do you do this?"

"I turn intangible and fly inside them. Why does it matter?"

Dumbledore gave a sigh of relief. This 'overshadowing' was merely a form of controlling the body from the inside, not some sort of mind control like the Imperious Curse, or possession like the disembodied Voldemort liked to use.

"That power seemed rather similar to several dark magicks."

"Oh. Gotcha."

"Before we go any further, I should probably give you the run down on the situation."

* * *

"Wow. Voldemort's a prick." Danny said after Dumbledore had finished his explanation.

"That... is certainly one way to put it," Albus replied diplomatically. "Are you still interested in assisting us?"

"Of course. That whacko needs to go down."

"Then welcome to the Order of the Phoenix. Now, we should figure out where you'll be staying. There's certainly room at Hogwarts, if you wish. It will certainly be easier to get ahold of you that way."

Danny didn't want to keep his power permanently split between two places.

"Nah. I'll figure something out on my own."

"Then we'll need to figure out some form of communication. Do you often lose items kept on your person?"

Danny thought it over for a bit. He never did lose any of the gadgets that he sometimes took along.

"Nope."

"Then before you leave, I'd like to give you an enchanted scroll that I can use to contact you." Dumbledore reminded himself to give Phantom the one that didn't have the tracking spell on it.

"Cool. Any thoughts on what my first task will be?"

"There's a certain individual that we'd like to be kept safe..."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Danny Phantom.

* * *

Being a teenager is not fun. One has to deal with sudden changes in their body, new hormones, new emotions, and they start feeling sexual attractions towards others. On top of that they are constantly growing, in need of more nourishment and sleep then before. Life and society spring new expectations upon teenagers on top of their changing bodies, with little regard to their already complicated status. It is no wonder that teenagers often feel grumpy.

Add in a possible case of diagnosed PTSD, an upcoming war, and a total information black out, and one could easily see why Harry Potter was irritable.

He knew nothing of what the newly returned Dark Lord Voldemort was doing! The madman who had murdered his parents, terrorized the wizarding world, who had either directly or indirectly been behind most of the problems Harry had faced at Hogwarts, the man responsible for Cedric's death, and the wizard Harry had dueled in an old graveyard on the night of his rebirth. Harry desperately wanted to know of his plans and actions, to prepare for the next inevitable confrontation. He searched muggle newspapers and listened in on muggle news for any signs of the evil wizard's actions. Harry checked the front page of the Daily Prophet for headlines that would hint at Voldemort's plans.

The Boy-Who-Lived found absolutely nothing in those sources. And he couldn't get any information from his contacts in the wizarding world.

Ron's letters demonstrated that the second youngest Weasley didn't need to be speaking to put his foot in his mouth, they were filled to vague references to events, things, and people Harry didn't know about followed by Ron mentioning that he wasn't supposed to tell Harry for security reasons. Why make the references at all then? If Harry didn't have a better opinion of his best male friend he would have said that Ron was deliberately taunting him.

And then Hermione's letters didn't make things any better. At some point over the summer she had began staying with Ron, wherever he was, and she kept saying that she wanted to tell him things but couldn't, in case somebody intercepted the owls. She also mentioned that they'd be able to tell him more when Harry joined them, but nobody would give him any clue as to when that was.

The only reason he wasn't furious with the information blackout was one of Sirius's letters.

_You know sometimes I forget you're muggle-raised, _Sirius had wrote, _and all the things you don't know because of that. Living with the muggles here has opened my eyes a bit in that regard. You need to know this; don't make eye contact with strangers, especially ones you suspect might be wizards. There's this thing, called Legimency, muggles would probably call it mind reading but its more complicated than that. A practitioner could view your memories, among other things, and pick out all the sensitive information in your skull. _

Harry understood why they weren't telling him some things. If some Death Eater could walk by and pick memories out of his head, then it would make sense that nobody would tell him anything while he was at the Dursley's. He was a walking security risk. But why didn't they just get him away from his relations? Or at least tell him some of the more obvious things about what Voldemort was up too, things that it wouldn't matter if the Death Eaters knew that he knew.

That unanswered question was the reason he was forced to hide under the windowsill of the Dursley's, listening to the seven o'clock news. Evidently Danny Phantom was still missing from Amity Park, although what appeared to be a female version of him had taken his place. Along with the Scarlet Huntress, she had taken up the ghost boy's duties. The Fentons were also still absent, something the various news organizations had discovered when they had gone to ask the family of ghost hunters for comments on the Phantom situation. Sources reported that they were off on some secret business

Harry knew that all the Hogwarts students would be thankful that Amity Park was still protected, despite the removal of some of its guardians. If it wasn't and something happened to it, Professor Binns would give another lesson about 'history in the making', like he had last time the topic of Amity Park had come up, and assign more essays on how the history of the wizarding world would influence its reactions to the events happening in Amity Park.

And Hermione would be bugging him and Ron to take more of an interest in those events.

But that wasn't really relevant, at least as far as Harry could tell. The Fentons were muggles, Phantom dealt mainly with spirits, and they were all Americans in any case. There was no reason for them to be mixed up in a British wizarding war. None of the other news Harry had heard as he crouched in the bushes had been useful either. And each report was getting more trivial then the last.

His uncle asked his aunt where their son, Dudley, was. Petunia replied that the boy was 'having tea' with one of his friends, like he had for most nights that summer. Harry quietly snorted. Dudley was with his gang, no doubt engaging in delinquent activities. Harry turned his attention back to the news.

When the news had become utterly irrelevant, Harry snuck away from the window. He had learned another batch of zilch. He needed to clear his mind. Harry decided to take a walk.

The sun was falling beneath the horizon, the orange light of dusk slowly giving way to the blues and blacks of night. The streets were empty that evening, giving Harry solitude. Not that anyone there would bother to talk to them. Locally he was a bit notorious, the "Potter Boy" who had to go to a school for boys who were incurably criminal. It made the people of the neighborhood a bit reluctant to talk to him and scared away some of the more impressionable members.

He walked by an empty park, playground swings swaying in the slight breeze, and noticed a group of people on the other end. Harry picked out the rather large figure in front, his mutually reluctant cousin, Dudley Dursley.

Dudley had always been large, but it used to be fat. That had changed lately. Now a portion of his mass was muscle. The heavy boy had taken up boxing and hadn't been putting his skills to good use. Dudley had taken to beating up people smaller than them (everyone) alongside with his gang.

Harry idly wondered which unfortunates had crossed their path that night.

Dudley noticed the wizard boy across the park and Harry noticed the distress that suddenly showed on his face. Would his pudgy cousin Dudley do? He was too scared of the smaller boy to confront him. But he'd lose face with his gang if he shied away from the confrontation.

Dudley decided to excuse himself from the rest of the night's activities evidently and left the group, walking over to Harry. Harry smirked for a moment and then thought better of it. His cousin was a massive jerk, yeah, but there was no need to take his current frustration out on him. Still...

"I'm surprised you left your gang behind," Harry began to taunt him. "You missed the opportunity to cement your reputation."

"What do you mean?" The larger boy asked suspiciously. He was looking for Harry's angle.

"Just think, you and your friends are walking along when all of the sudden you run into the boy who supposedly spends his time at a school for the incurably criminal, is supposed to be a bit mental, a bit dangerous, and then wham! He casually starts talking to you and you casually start talking back to the dangerous freak. What an amazing fellow, this Dudley person, thinks your gang, he's able to be so chummy with the dangerous lunatic. He must fear nothing!"

Dudley slapped his hand to his forehead.

"Why didn't I think of that?" He whined.

"Well I would say it's because you're as stupid as you look, but if that were the case, there's no way you'd be able to walk."

"Laugh it up freak."

"Thank you, I will, delinquent."

"Why are so you cheery all of a sudden?" Dudley asked darkly. "I preferred you the way you've been all summer."

"The prospect of imminent death is making me feel so light hearted today for some reason," Harry replied. "Just think, you and your parents will get your fondest dream to come true soon. Course you'll probably die soon after, the guy who'd off me doesn't like muggles..."

"Muggles?"

"Non-magical people. He also doesn't like magical people with muggle parents, sort wants to kill them all."

"Bloody hell, what's his problem?"

"Currently? Same as yours. I'm still breathing. Oh and there was this incident when I was a baby and he gave me this scar..." Harry drawled, pointing to the lightning shaped scar that crowned his forehead. "Blew himself up doing so and just came back last year. Killed a friend of mine right in front of me and then used my blood for a ritual to get himself a new body. Git doesn't know a thing about apologizing or gratitude because after that he tried to kill me again."

"Good grief," Dudley groaned as the two walked back. "Has he killed your girlfriend and stuffed her in the fridge yet?"

"Most wizards don't use fridges, so he wouldn't think of it when I do get a girlfriend," Harry replied. Joking about Voldemort made him feel so much better for some reason. "I suppose with the money his followers have got, he can buy one for the occasion. They won't miss it. They've got enough to buy the magical government. In fact they have bought the government and they've convinced them that their boss isn't back."

"Wow, corrupt government, murderous madmen after you, and no girl? Better you than me I suppose."

"Your sympathy is heartwarming," Harry deadpanned.

"Why are you even out here anyway?" Dudley demanded.

"Talking a walk to clear my mind and reflect on my doom."

They turned street corner and started going down the avenue.

"So..." Dudley began. "Were you being serious back there?"

"Serious? No. Honest? Yes." Harry replied.

"Wow. I'm really glad I don't have magic."

"Yeah. We wouldn't want you at Hogwarts anyway."

Harry's fingers and limbs felt cold for some reason and he thought he saw a mist start to rise from the streets. It was getting cold quickly for a summer's night.

"Brr..." Dudley rubbed his hands together. "You doing some cooling magic or something?"

"Not on purpose," Harry told his overweight cousin. "I'd get expelled if I used my wand outside of school except for in cases of self defense." Thank you Hermione. Harry had made sure to ask about that after getting Sirius's letter that mentioned Legimency. "I can't do wandless magic yet, and I don't know why I'd want something like this to happen, so that rules out accidental magic as well."

"You'd be making me uncomfortable," Dudley replied.

"And myself at the same time. I'm not that stupid." Harry shot back.

"Criminy! It got colder fast!" Dudley exclaimed shivering.

Harry noticed it too. It had become bone chilling cold.

"Dudley we need to get out of here," Harry hissed. "Whatever this is, it isn't good."

"W-w-hat is it?" Dudley asked, teeth chattering.

All light seemed to vanish, plunging the duo into darkness. The light from the lamps, the light of the moon, and even the light of the stars failed to penetrate and illuminate the two boys, even as the cold grew sharper. It was like being lost in a storm cloud during a new moon, even the air itself seemed dark and oppressive.

And then the feeling hit.

If one has ever experienced the deepest of depressions then no description is necessary. If one hasn't, then it is doubtful any description will do the feeling justice, but an attempt must be made.

Hope. At best it was a dim feeble light, not at the end of the tunnel, but overhead, not promising an end or for everything to get better, but merely a minor respite. At worst it was inconceivable. One could not even imagine hope through the cloud of dark emotions within, crushed by apathy, crushed by despair, crushed by sadness and grief and guilt and sometimes even anger. There was no room for hope.

Pain. It was subtle, so one could never tell if it was a gentle ache around the area of the stomach or enough to make one curl up and cry. It was always there and one could only be free of it by forgetting about it for a short time.

Energy. Motivation. Nearly impossible to muster. It was so very hard to care about some things in that state or to see why the reasons as to why one should care matter.

Fear. Omnipresent. No hope meant that the future could hold nothing good and one should dread what tomorrow brings. One should fear what their loved one's would think of them if they knew all those little secrets. One should fear the rejection that one so richly deserves, the misfortune that would be coming up, and the mistakes of the past coming back to haunt them.

Grief and sadness. Sadness needs no reason in that state. It simply is. Overwhelming oceans that threaten to spill out at any moment in the form of tears, at any time of the day, at the slightest provocation. One also finds themselves mourning almost anything, especially memories of a past without that state, a thing that seems forever gone.

Self hatred. Words could never express how much one hates themselves in that state. How they are such a horrible, worthless, useless being, **who should just die... **

Lies upon lies, to give validity to the feelings one is experiencing, lying about their own worth to make it easier to give up and just simply escape into oblivion.

That is the best way to describe the feeling that hit Harry Potter and Dudley Dursley.

"M-m-make it stop," Dudley moaned.

"Dudley, stay close to me," Harry said. He knew this feeling and fought it even as the memories of a screaming woman and a flash of green light rose up in the back of his head. "I know what's doing this. You can't see it, but I can. Listen to my voice, grab my arm, don't let it get near you."

Dudley's cold and clammy hand grabbed Harry's upper arm and squeezed, painfully hard. But Harry didn't tell him off, there were more important things to do.

"W-w-what is it!" The rotund cousin squeaked.

"Dementor," Harry replied shortly. "Eats happiness."

Harry drew his wand.

"Lumos," he incanted. That was one charm that was acceptable to use in front of muggles, as it was easily explained away as a flashlight.

The light revealed what Harry had guessed. A tall figure, dressed in tattered black robes, hooded and menacing glided towards them, radiating despair and unhappiness from every inch of its body. Harry caught a glimpse of a second shape further back in the mist, probably a second one.

"Two of them," Harry hissed to Dudley. "I don't know if there's more. If they get me, just run away, because then it won't matter if there's another you wouldn't be able to see it anyway."

Harry desperately searched for a way to get out of this situation without using magic, but he couldn't think of one. It seemed hopeless. There was nothing he could do. A person like him, who couldn't save anybody, who let Cedric die, didn't deserve a soul anyway...

Harry growled as he tried to summon up a happy memory to fight off the influence of the foulest Dark creature to inhabit the mortal world. Born from an encounter between Pariah Dark, Abaddon, Loki, and Epiales, dementors were meant for nothing but the purest evil, their mere existence a fouler thing than all the actions of Voldemort to date. Harry had learned all about them in his third year at Hogwarts, including their origin.

Loki. Trickster god. Pranks.

Fred. George. Weasley. Ron.

Ron and Hermione. There was his happy thought. The only happy thought he'd ever need.

Harry Potter raised his wand, preparing to cast the Patronus Charm, to summon both happiness to fight off the despair forced upon him and a truth about himself, revealed through the shape of the Patronus, to drive back the lies of Loki that aided the dark feelings in taking root in Harry's heart.

But before he had a chance to summon the silver guardian, an ethereal green light shone and a beam of the same color smashed into the creature in front of him. The dementor stumbled and turned its attention away from Harry and Dudley. The dark feelings lessened a bit and the two turned to see who had intervened.

A boy floated behind them, dressed in some sort of black form fitting clothing, wit emblazoned on the front in white. He had white hair and green eyes. Harry noticed that he was softly glowing.

"Danny Phantom?" Dudley gasped. After hearing that, Harry recognized the being.

Danny glared at the dementors.

"You remind me of Spectra," he said darkly. "I really don't like that."

He fired off another beam of ectoplasm. It raced towards the creature who drew in a deep rattling breath. The green beam was sucked into its mouth and then was gone.

"I didn't know they could do that," Harry commented idly as the dementors started to advance once more.

"So that's how you want to play," Phantom said, holding up both hands. In one hand he gathered up a ball of glowing green power. In the other hand he held pale blue energy. Putting his hands together, he thrust the blue energy into the center of the green and then lofted the ball into the air.

Again the demontor drew in a deep breath, taking the ball with it. Once more the energy disappeared, seemingly a waste.

But then there was a flash of white-blue light and the dementor fell to the ground, encased in ice.

The second dementor stared to advance but then thought better of it. It retreated, grabbing its frozen comrade and taking the despair with it.

"It was even supposed to be my night off," Phantom muttered under his breath, but Harry caught it. "Mundungus owes me for this."

"What do you mean your night off? What are you even doing in Britain? Why did you leave Amity Park? What are you doing here?" Harry asked, swiftly recovering from the effects of the dementors.

"He's here because I asked him to be," a voice that Harry recognized spoke up. He turned to see Mrs Figg, their batty old neighbor, angrily striding over to them. The wizard boy tried to hide his wand.

"Don't bother, keep it at the ready," she scolded him. "There's been one attack, they might try again."

Both Harry and Dudley stared at her in shock.

"I am so glad Dumbledore gave me the means to contact you," Mrs. Figg said, turning to Phantom. "I can only imagine what would've happened otherwise. Thank you."

"It's no problem," Phantom replied. "I'm just a bit annoyed because it was supposed to be my night off guard duty-"

"Guard duty?" Harry asked. "Wait, Mrs. Figg, you're a witch?"

"Squib," she replied, glancing at him.

"Squid?" Dudley asked, letting go of Harry's arm. Harry rubbed it; Dudley's grip at hurt.

"Squib," Mrs. Figg corrected. "A muggle child born to wizarding parents."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" Harry asked.

"Dumbledore's orders," the witch replied. "And I didn't see you that often, I just stopped by every once and a while. Come on, lets get you two home."

"But why is he here?" Dudley whined, pointing a figure to the floating spirit.

"Guarding Harry," Phantom answered. "Dumbledore wanted a bunch of firepower on hand in case Voldemort launched a sneak attack."

"How long have you been tailing me?" Harry asked, growing a little bit annoyed. He remembered his DADA lessons, it would probably be no use in getting mad at Phantom.

"About a month or so," Phantom replied as he floated along with the group. "I should probably turn invisible again." The spirit vanished and spoke up again.

"There we go. I'll try to stay next to one of you so you don't look like you're talking to empty air."

"Why are you tailing me?" Harry asked, guessing the answer ahead of time.

"Dumbledore's orders," the ghost boy replied.

"Why are you following Dumbledore's orders?" Harry asked, getting to what he was really curious about.

"Voldemort wants some people in my town dead, so I've got to beat him up," Phantom told Harry. Harry heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh and guessed the spirit had punched his palm. "Dumbledore sent Lupin to fetch them and to warn me of what was up."

"He's been a big help, taking over guard duty has freed up manpower needed elsewhere," Mrs. Figg said happily. "And with him here we can be sure that you're safe."

"Well, not anymore," Phantom replied from the air beside her, sounding abashed. "Now that they know I'm here they'll take countermeasures. We'll probably have to move Harry to the headquarters."

"Finally," Harry said under his breath. "But what were the dementors doing here and not Azkaban? Has Voldemort already recruited them?"

"Azkaban?" Dudley asked.

"Wizard prison," Harry answered off handily. "They're the guards."

"You use those things as guards," Dudley gasped in horror. "Mental. Your bloody lot is mental!"

"Yes, yes, they are," Phantom said, this time by Harry. "Honestly what were you thinking?"

"I was muggle raised," Harry protested. "And nobody listens to me!"

"I'm a squib. They could care less about me." Mrs. Figg replied.

"Whoever thought it up was an idiot who didn't think about long term consequences," Phantom said darkly, surprising himself. Then again he had been putting up with both Sam and Hermione joining together to crusade against all the problems of the wizarding world, he had been forced to learn a little about these things. But he'd spew chunks before getting one of those S.P.E.W badges. "No wonder it produced someone like Voldemort, concerned with only power, and picking on people different and weaker than him."

Harry shot Dudley a look. The dementor's must have made the boy a bit more perceptive, because he flinched under it.

"What should we tell the Dursley's?" Harry asked, turning back to the last place he had heard Phantom. By now the effects of the foulest creatures to walk the mortal world had faded and he felt much better. He could see number four, Privet Drive ahead.

"Phantom saved Harry and me," Dudley spoke up. "And wizards are coming to take him away for the rest of the summer."

"Sounds like a plan," Harry spoke up, surprised. He hadn't expected his cousin to contribute at all.

"Alright, I'll be nearby until relief comes," Phantom spoke up by Dudley. "So don't worry. Besides, the protective magic around your house should keep you all safe until we can move Harry."

"There's magic on our house?" Dudley asked confused. "What's it do?"

"I don't know much about it," Mrs. Figg replied. "But I do know it's supposed to keep you all safe from Voldemort's followers and Dark creatures."

They stopped by the doorway.

"I'll be outside if you need me," Phantom said. "See ya later."

Harry couldn't tell if the spirit had left, but at the very least Phantom didn't speak again.

"If you can't find him, just contact me if you need anything," Mrs. Figg told him. "It's been nice seeing you again."

"Likewise... I think," Harry responded, a bit confused. He and Dudley turned and entered the house.

"Thanks," Harry heard Dudley mutter.

"For what?" Harry asked, confused. "Phantom took care of them, not me."

"Yeah, but you stopped me from running into them," Dudley replied, not meeting Harry's eye. "Since I couldn't see them-"

"Well nobody deserved to have their soul ripped out."

"They eat souls!"

"Well, kiss them out of you, but yeah, you'd be a vegetable for the rest of your life," Harry replied. "They almost got me in my third year, when they were all over the school. It was great incentive to learn the Patronus Charm." Once more he was joking about the bad things that had happened to him. After the dementor attack it felt so very right for some reason.

Dudley stared at Harry, as if seeing him for the first time.

"Well I'm off to bed," the wizarding boy told his cousin. "Just as a heads up, you'll probably have nightmares tonight. But just remember that I'll be leaving soon. Tell that to your parents, it will make all of your days."

And with that, the Boy-Who-Lived became the Boy-Who-Went-To-Bed.

* * *

Author's Notes: The rules for writing this story are a bit different than for my other story, due to the differences in the source mediums, and it's refreshing in a way to switch between them.

Please leave a review.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own neither Danny Phantom nor Harry Potter

A bit shorter then usual and it took a bit longer, but hey, I had to move back on campus yesterday so I'm not going to apologize for the delay.

* * *

Danny Phantom rested invisibly within the threshold of the protective magics around Number Four Privet Drive. He couldn't actually sense the magic, but Dumbledore had given him the details about its function and coverage, and so he made sure to float within the radius of protection.

The halfa yawned. He was beyond tired. It had almost been a couple weeks of nothing but constant guard duty. And today was supposed to be his day off.

He also felt nervous about his current power distribution. Most of his energy was in the duplicate at the Dursley's house, leaving only enough to manifest an independent duplicate back at Grimmauld place. A scrape or a bruise wouldn't dispel the duplicate, but a fall down the stairs would. And then there was the fact that Danny back at the Order HQ was the one doing the studying, so in order to get the full benefit from that, he had to be the 'original' full time so to speak. Memories received from a duplicate weren't the clearest or most detailed of things.

And then there was the fact that keeping one's power divided was tiring. It took more effort to do even the simplest of things. The Danny spending all his time in human form was developing constant bags under his eyes when Phantom was on guard duty. And the Danny in his ghost form could only operate at about a quarter of his full capacity. It was a good thing that he hadn't gotten in a full scale fight with the Dementors, otherwise he'd have had to establish a connection between the duplicates and dispel one the one not in combat.

Danny sleepily thought to himself, that he'd have to find a way to adjust energy distribution between duplicates without resorting to dispelling and recreating them. The half ghost boy repeated that in his head several times so that the 'original' would remember it.

When was the relief going to arrive? He had told them that he really needed a day off and he hadn't been kidding. Even with the boast of power he got from being in his ghost form he was close to falling asleep.

Maybe he should just go tell Harry to stay in the house until they came to pick him up and then go tell Mrs. Figgs that he had to leave? Nah, he'd stick this through to the end.

Headlights. The older Dursley's were returning. Hopefully Dudley would stick to his word.

Danny shifted position and let out some sleep noises.

* * *

Four days. That's how many had passed for Harry Potter.

Right after the encounter with Phantom, the wizard child had written three letters to his friends and godfather, asking for some explanations. He had sent Hedwig out with instructions to wait until they had written replies before returning. Harry had expected her to return the next day. But she had failed to do so and so here he was, lying in his room, staring at the ceiling.

Dudley had evidently told his parents some bullshit about Harry receiving an owl, while Dudley was making sure he didn't cause any trouble with his 'freakishness'. Harry's cousin had surprised him, the lie contained nothing that would get him in trouble with his aunt and uncle. Maybe Dudley was being serious about grateful to him.

It had been nice to not be at each other's throats. It probably wouldn't happen again unless Harry included some self-depreciating dark humor at the beginning of the conversation to break the ice. But even mortal enemies occasionally shared a laugh.

Harry could see Voldemort giving off one of his wild cackles at something Harry said in jest, though the Dark Lord would probably be laughing at something other then the intent of Harry's joke. Or maybe he would laugh honestly and then return to trying to kill Harry. The evil wizard seemed to have mood swings, sometimes talking to Harry as if he were a worthy foe, someone to tempt over to his side, as in Harry's first year, and other times treating the boy-who-lived as less then the dirt beneath his feet.

Harry returned to thinking about what he knew. So the Order had recruited Danny Phantom, the hero spirit of Amity Park. That was certainly big news. And Voldemort's agenda was showing signs of, if not global, then at least international ambitions. That wasn't comforting.

Harry frowned. A thought had occurred to him. Had Voldemort managed to recruit or bind some of the dangerous Amity Park spirits? Harry remembered from his DADA lessons that binding a sentient spirit, what a large majority of the specters that plagued Amity Park were, was incredibly difficult. Not only could they effectively use their power to break the structure of the spell, they could also find loopholes in their instructions and exploit them. That's why dangerous ones were usually killed or sealed.

Recruited then. Voldemort could have something to offer them. And they would fit right in with his army of Dark creatures and magical constructs.

There was that new born spirit, Technus, Harry recalled from his modern history assignments. If he joined the Dark Lord, Voldemort could intergrate him with his army of war golems, one of his many creations that had helped the Dark Lord deal with the fact that he was outnumbered by both the Ministry and the Order of the Phoenix. With the technology spirit's help they would be more powerful than ever.

Or Skulker a hunter spirit. Voldemort could bind a number of non-sentient hunting spirits to his cause and give command of them to Skulker. Voldemort would have a lesser version of the Wild Hunt of old under his command.

Harry really wanted those letters soon. He really hated being kept in the dark, even if he knew why.

Come to think of it, why weren't they telling him about Phantom now? He already knew that they had recruited him, why not give him a little bit extra exposition about the whole thing. The cat was out of the bag, a Death Eater rummaging through his head would easily grab the big secret about Phantom.

He heard the car start outside. The Dursleys were leaving for some sort of event. Harry hadn't been paying attention to what it was. They hadn't bothered to tell him not to touch anything, Harry had been sticking to his room except for meals for the last couple days.

Harry sighed and returned to looking at the ceiling. His mind wandered once more. Harry lost track of time as his thoughts fluttered from subject to subject.

And then he heard a crash downstairs.

_ Burglars! _The boy thought to himself. He grabbed his wand, laying on the nightstand next to his bed, and dashed out of his room.

Wait, Phantom should be guarding the house. He would stop any burglars. It must be the people Dumbledore sent!

Harry raced down the stairs eager to leave his relative's house. He found eight or nine people standing in the shadowy hallway, one of them clutching their foot and cursing under their breath.

"Where's your wand boy?" A voice that Harry recognized chided him. "You're confronting unknown intruders, show a bit of sense."

"Professor Moody?"

"Don't know about Professor, I didn't get around to much teaching now did I? If I had you wouldn't have been done here without a wand out."

"Sorry," Harry apologized. "But I figured Phantom would stop-"

"Phantom hasn't been here for three days," Moody said. "He had to withdraw and we've had a rotating guard on duty instead. We've withdrawn our forces in preparation for this extraction."

"Why'd he have to withdraw?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. It's his secret." Moody replied.

"That's beside the point for now," another familiar voice spoke up.

"Professor Lupin?"

"Yes," Harry's favorite DADA teacher replied. "We're here to take you away."

"Why are we all standing in the dark?" An unfamiliar female voice spoke up. "Lumos!"

Wandlight shone all over the hall, revealing the figures to Harry. The witch who was illuminating hallway had spiky violet hair, a heart shaped face, and dark twinkling eyes. She had also been the one clutching their foot.

"You look just like I thought you would. Wotcher, Harry!"

"Were you the one cursing earlier?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm a bit of a klutz. Tonks by the way." The woman replied.

"Don't go around giving out your names before we confirm his identity," Moody growled. "It would be a fine thing to bring back a Death Eater impersonating Potter."

"Harry, what form does your patronus take?" Lupin asked the boy.

"A stag," Harry replied automatically.

"It's him Mad-Eye," Lupin replied.

"Fine. Go get your wand boy, can't have you going around defenseless," Moody said irritably. "Nymphadora-"

"Don't call me that," replied the violet haired woman with a shudder. Moody rolled his normal eye, his other eye scanning the premise.

"Fine, Tonks, you go help Harry get his things. Shacklebolt-" Moody turned to a tall black wizard. "You go outside and wait for Phantom to get here."

"I'll come and help you," Harry said to the witch named Tonks.

Tonks commented on the state of the Dursley's house on the way up the stairs and the two made small talk as they gathered his things. Harry had a bit of a start when she casually decided to change her hair color in the middle of the conversation.

"I'm a Metamorphmagus," Tonks told the Boy-Who-Live, who looked puzzled. "It means I can change my appearance at will."

It was right after that Harry learned that she and Kingsley were both Aurors, the men and women who hunted dark wizards, the profession Harry wanted to pursue after Hogwarts.

Tonks used magic to speed up the packing process and soon the two of them were headed back downstairs. Moody had taken his eyeball out of his socket and had put it in a glass of water. He caught Harry's inquiring glance.

"Thing's been sticking ever since the scum wore it," Mad-Eye told Harry.

"Alright, I've left the letter explaining that we're taking you somewhere safe," Lupin told Harry.

"I think they'd prefer somewhere dangerous," Harry replied.

"So they won't worry-"

"There was never a chance of that."

"And that you'll be be back next summer-"

"For once I'm feeling the same as them about that."

Lupin grinned and ruffled Harry's hair.

"Phantom show up yet?" Moody shouted to the doorway. He had put his eye back in its socket and it was spinning so fast that Harry felt uncomfortable looking at it.

"Not yet, he's still got a minute. Why don't you get Harry ready?" Came Kingsley's reply.

"Come here boy," Moody told the wizard child. "We need to prepare for the trip."

"Prepare how?" Harry asked.

"Disillusion you for one, put a couple of protective spells on for another," Moody said.

"Couldn't I just use my Invisibility Cloak?"

"Wouldn't stay off. Tonks get out his broom and check it over. You can't apparate and the floo network might be watched, we can't take all your stuff along with Side-along Apparition, and its too risky to make a portkey right now, so we're taking you by broom." Moody raised his wand. "Lupin, get the ritual ready while I do this."

Lupin nodded and bustled off, pulling long candlesticks out of an entirely too small bag. Moody rapped Harry on the head, hard, and the boy-who-was-attacked-by-dementors felt a curious sensation, like Moody had smashed an egg on his head. Chilling rivulets of nothing ran down his head from the point of impact.

"Nice," Tonks commented staring at Harry. Harry looked down and found that he had miraculously gained the powers of a chameleon, he was taking on the color and texture of his surroundings. "Need any help on your end Lupin?"

"No," replied the werewolf, using his wand to paint an octagram on the floor, a candle at each point. "Everyone just take your places, Harry in the center please."

"Don't screw this up anyone," Moody growled. "Unicorn hair candles aren't easy to come by, even if we have Hagrid make them all."

Harry stood in the center of the symbol and all the wizards in the house, that is everyone who came to get him except Kingsley, stepped up to a candle and took out their wands.

"Everyone remember the incantation?" Remus asked the assembled mages. They all nodded in reply. "Then, on the count of three... One, two, three!"

Everyone used their wand to light their candle at the same time and then pointed their wands at Harry. The hairs on the back of the boy's neck tingled as he sensed the magic gathering.

"By the cries of the innocent," the wizards and witches said in unison, their voices becoming more ethereal and otherworldy the more they talked, "and the laughter of the wicked, we beseeach you pure light of the unicorn, protect this child from ill!"

Silver light flared up from the lit candles, a miniature moonrise within the Number Four Privet Drive, making Harry recall the light of the night reflected off the unicorn blood he had seen during his first year. With eight flicks of eight wands in perfect synchrony the eight globes of light rose up from the candles, each of which immediately turned to ash. Eight wands thrust forward towards Harry and the globes of light gathered around the boy, and then sped into the center of his body. For a moment silver light infused the boy, visible even through Moody's Disillusionment, and then it faded.

"There we go," Moody said satisfied. "A nice Eight Point Shield of the Unicorn. Should be enough to stop any curse that the Death Eaters feel like they can use without risking detection."

"Hagrid did an excellent job with those candles," Lupin said, as he used his wand to whisk the ashes into the bag and make the painted octagram vanish. "I don't think we could have used the shortened form of the ritual with candles of any lesser quality. You feeling alright Harry?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, remembering not to simply nod. He felt better then ever in fact. There was a comforting presence all around him, wrapping him in both warmth and the scents of the forest.

"Tonks, is his broom ready?" Moody inquired.

"Checked it over, no sign of sabotage," the Metamorphmagus replied.

Harry heard the front door open and everyone turned to look. Kingsley walked in, followed by the floating phantom Danny Phantom.

Phantom looked better then the last time Harry had seen him, not that he had looked unhealthy last time. But Harry had never seen the spirit before and had nothing to compare him against the night the dementors attacked. Phantom's glow was much brighter this night and his color were more... alive for a lack of a better term. His green eyes were sharper as they met Harry's own jade colored eyes.

"Sorry if I'm late," the specter apologized. "I took a wrong turn somewhere."

"No, you're just barely on time," Moody replied gruffly. "Alright here's the plan. Phantom you stick close to Potter, I want you ready to shield him at a moment's notice. Tonk's will be in front of you, stick on her tail. Lupin will be below you and I'll cover you from behind. Everyone else will circle you. If we run into anything really big, it's Phantom's job to hold them off. The rest of us don't break ranks for anything. If one of us is killed-"

"Is that likely?" Harry asked.

"-the others keep flying don't stop. If we all die and you survive Harry, keep flying east, the rear guard will join you."

"Stop being so optimistic Mad-Eye," Tonks said, strapping Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage to a harness on her broom, "we don't want him to think it will be all bunnies and rainbows."

"I'm just telling the boy our plan," Alastor growled. "Our job is to get him safely to headquarters and if we die-"

"Don't worry about that," Phantom interjected. "I'll make sure that doesn't happen."

"Everyone outside," Kingsley told the group. The wizards shuffled out of the hallway and into under the night sky.

"Clear night," Moody said, using his magical eye to scan the sky. "Could've used a bit more cloud cover. We need to wait for the signal-"

Red light flared among the stars. Harry recognized it as wand sparks.

"Mount your brooms and take off!" Moody barked.

Harry swung his leg over his Firebolt and then kicked off. His broom responded and he fell back into his element, flying once more. Chill night air ruffled his hair and clothes as he sped upwards, the lawn below shrinking and becoming a tiny patch of gray in the night. He felt so indescribably happy to be back in the air, to be part of the vast starry sky, he could just go up forever and ever...

"Hard left, hard left!" Moody shouted. "There's a muggle looking up. Get higher everyone."

Harry complied, catching sight of Tonks and falling in line behind her, keeping perfect pace with the witch as the group ascended.

"Nice formation flying," a voice spoke out from Harry's right side. He turned his head and found Phantom flying beside him, arms outstretched in a superman pose, and his legs had turned into a ghostly tail. "I heard you played that broom sport for your school team?"

"House team," Harry replied. "There aren't any other schools in England to play against."

"Close enough," the spirit said. "So-"

"Bearing South," Mad Eyed Moody shouted above the whoosh of the wind, "town ahead."

Phantom and Harry turned on a dime and slowed down a bit to allow Tonks to get in front of them again.

The spirit cleared his throat and continued speaking.

"So what is the sport exactly. Nobody's ever had the time to explain it properly to me."

"Quidditch?" Harry responded. "Well, at first glance it seems like basketball or football on broomsticks..."

* * *

The conversation with Phantom helped Harry to ignore the chill of the night as they traveled. Phantom seemed puzzled by much of Quidditch, especially the logic behind several of the rules, mainly the bludgers and the snitch. Harry tried explaining the history of the game to the spirit, but it didn't help much.

Harry had asked the halfa about what Dumbledore had him doing and for how long. According to Phantom, he had joined Dumbledore's side several weeks ago and his primary task had been watching Harry.

The positions of the others never changed, Tonks right in front of the boy and the halfa, Lupin below, and Moody off behind them. The rest of the wizards circled around like vultures, the fluttering of their robes adding to the effect.

Moody had them change course several times in order to avoid towns and muggles, and to throw off any pursuers. Moody occasionally tried to get them to fly through clouds, only to be vetoed by Tonks and the others. Once a bird that nobody had noticed startled Phantom, who had thrown up a translucent green sphere around him and Harry. Moody had complimented the spirit on his resources but asked him to be less conspicuous next time.

"We ought to double back for a bit," Mood shouted to everyone. "Just to make sure we're not being folowed-"

"Are you off your bloody rocker Mad-Eye!" Tonks shouted at the retired Auror. "We're all nearly frozen to our brooms and it'll take us a week to get there if we keep going off course. Besides, we're almost there now."

"It's time to start the descent," Lupin called out. "Phantom, Moody, we need to make sure that the area below's clear."

Phantom nodded and then dove down, turning intangible to avoid air resistance. Moody's eye swept to and fro, scanning below for any threats.

"It's clear. Everyone down." Moody began to descend and the rest of the group followed suit. Phantom raced up to rejoin Harry and cover him on the way down, greens eyes glowing brightly in the night as looked around alertly.

"We're here now," Tonks announced as she touched down. Harry landed right after her. He looked around as he absentmindedly dismounted his broom and stretched. The neighborhood didn't look very inviting, from the broken windows, to the bits of rubbish scattered about.

"Where are we?" The boy asked Lupin, who had also landed.

"Right by headquarters," Phantom replied before the werewolf could say a word. "Who's got the paper thingy with Dumbledore's message?"

Moody and Lupin gave the spirit a mild glare as the former fumbled through his robes for something, his gnarled hands made clumsy by the cold. He took out a piece of parchment and handed it to Harry.

Harry looked down as Moody pulled out what looked like a silver lighter and began to use it to shut off the streetlamps.

"How many of those things did the old guy make," Phantom wondered aloud.

"There's nothing special about it, other then the fact that Dumbledore wrote it himself," Lupin told the specter. "I thought we explained this to you."

"Oh, yeah," Phantom sounded abashed. "I must've forgotten."

Harry ignored them and read the message.

_The of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve Grimmuald Place, London. _

"What's the Order of the-" Harry began, but Moody cut him off.

"Not here boy," the old auror hissed. "Wait till we're inside."

"It's just we we call ourselves," Phantom said. Moody turned to glare at the spirit who shrugged. "As long as he doesn't say the name it's not going to change anything."

"Think about what you've just read," Lupin told Harry. The boy's brow furrowed as he concentrated. Then sudden movement caught his eye.

A house sprang into existence between places eleven and thirteen, inflating itself and pushing the other houses to the side. It was a surreal sight, seeing a battered door appear out of nowhere as a muggle stereo pumped out music from number eleven.

"Is that-"

"Come on, hurry boy," Moody said, giving Harry a little push. Harry hurried up the worn stone steps, staring at the door that had materialized. He got a bad feeling from the silver twisted serpent knocker on the front. Nothing ever good came from a place that associated itself with snakes. Which Harry found to be quite unfortunate, he quit like snakes. They asked for little more out of life then a nice spot in the sun and a couple of mice maybe, and if you left them alone, they left you alone. Why they were associated with ambition and evil always did puzzle him. It's not like snakes wanted to conquer the world or anything.

Harry pushed those thoughts out of his head as Lupin tapped the door with his wand. The sound of many clicks could be heard, as well as the jingle of chains, and the sound of bolts being unlatched.

"Hurry in but don't go far," the werewolf whispered to the wizard child. Harry nodded and then entered Grimmuald Place.

* * *

Author's Notes: More changes to the Harry Potter cannon and their magic system, but I've always felt that you should have to change those things in a successful crossover. Please review.


	5. Chapter 5

Harry looked around the entryway as the advanced guard brought his stuff in behind him. It was a dreary seeming house, complete with gas lamps, dirty walls, and cobwebs. Harry idly wondered if it was haunted. Then he remembered that Phantom frequented the place.

The hallway lamps were lit with a wave of Moody's wand and Harry heard the sound of several people's hurried footsteps. Harry caught sight of Mrs. Weasley and another red haired woman that he didn't know coming down the hall to greet them.

"Oh Harry," the Weasley matron said, wrapping him in a hug. "It's so good to see you're alright. Nobody would tell me if you were hurt or not."

"Sorry about that," Phantom said, floating in through the doorway, and rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "I wasn't sure who I was allowed to talk to about the incident."

"Don't worry Mrs. Weasley," Harry told the woman hugging him. "A dementor attack is just a nice bit of exercise for me."

"Sorry to intrude, but what's a dementor again?" The question came from the other red haired woman, the one Harry didn't recognize. "I think I may have heard the term before, but with all this stuff going on I don't remember what it is."

"Creatures that eat happiness," Tonks said, leading the rest of the advanced guard into the house. "They guard Azkaban, our prison."

"Sounds like an interesting idea. Do you think we could get a couple to guard his thermos after we capture him?" The strange woman hooked a thumb at Phantom.

"That'll be the day. You couldn't catch a cold." The ghost boy smirked as he retorted.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Harry asked. Mrs. Weasley released him and gestured to the other red haired woman.

"Harry, this is Maddie Fenton," Mrs. Weasley stated. "Maddie, this is Harry Potter."

"Hello Mrs. Fenton," Harry said, offering a hand. "Wait, Fenton as in the American Fentons? The muggles with the magic technology."

"Well we haven't been able to identify the stuff you lot call magic, but we're the best ghost hunters in the world," the muggle woman declared proudly.

"And you're still not good enough to catch me. Does that make me the best ghost in the world?" Phantom shot back.

"What are you doing here?" Harry interrupted the two before they could start exchanging taunts in earnest.

"Same as everyone else. Hiding out from Voldemort." Maddie said, glaring at Phantom. "Evidently he doesn't like the fact that our inventions can mess with magical beings. And it turns out my son, Danny, and his friend, Sam, are wizards. Well, Sam's a witch, but you get what I mean. And their friend Tucker is staying here to help me and my husband with our research. Jazz is busy studying wizarding culture."

"Oh."

"And I've heard a lot about you from Molly here," Maddie went on. "I'm sure we'll get along just fine Mr. Potter."

"You can call me Harry," replied the wizard child. Mrs. Weasley looked at the clock.

"The meeting is going to start soon," she told the advanced guard. "Phantom, are you attending this one?"

"I probably should," the spirit replied glumly. "I always thought you had to be old to be attending meetings."

"Well not all of us have eternal youth, boy," Moody said scowling. "Sorry we couldn't arrange to meet in a tree fort."

"Hey, I don't have eternal youth! I'm still growing."

Moody shot him a disbelieving look with his good eye.

"I'm being serious. I've got a few feet to go. I'm not like Youngblood!" The halfa continued to protest.

"Keep telling yourself that," Moody said, following the rest of the guard as they filed down the hall to go to the meeting.

"No really!" Danny Phantom said, waving his arms wildly as he floated down the hall after the retired Auror.

Harry moved to join them, but Mrs. Weasley gently grabbed his arm and held him back.

"No, Harry, the meeting's only for members of the Order. Ron and Hermione are upstairs, and Danny, Sam, Jazz, and Tucker are in the basement." Mrs. Weasley told the boy-of-hyphenated-titles. "You can wait at either place until the meeting's over. And keep your voice down in the hall."

"Why?"

"I don't want to wake anything up."

"What-"

"I'll explain later. I'm supposed to be at the meeting. The stairways over here."

She led him quietly past a pair of long, moth-eaten currents, around a large umbrella stand, and to a dark staircase with several empty head mounts.

"Your room is on the second landing, the door on the right," the Weasley matriarch told the unofficial member of her clan. "Be quiet on the stairs."

Harry nodded and started to climb. He reached the second landing and tiptoed to the door on the right. He opened the door, twisting the serpent's head knob, and then entered the room.

There was a small moment in time where Harry could see the room and the twin beds, and then there was a longer period of time where all he could see was a high ceiling and a bunch of bushy hair. There had been a shriek and a moving body in the space between the times.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, picking herself up off the floor where she had knocked down the scarred boy. "Ron, he's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you alright? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, though Sam said you shouldn't be, but she didn't sound very convincing, I know our letters were useless-"

"You know me," Harry replied, propping himself up on one elbow. "A nice surprise dementor attack is just the thing to spice up a dull summer. And don't make a fuss about the letters. I know it was too risky, what with owls getting intercepted and mind reading Death Eaters."

"Mind reading Death Eaters?" Ron spoke up. The boy seemed to be be taller and more gangly then Harry remember, almost like he had grown during the summer, which Harry reflected, in retrospect he probably had. His freckles, bright red hair, and long nose seemed to be the same. "They can do that? Fantastic, just another thing to worry about mate."

"It's just something Sirius mentioned in one of his letters. He said its called Legilimency." While he was talking there was a soft whooshing sound and an owl soared from the dark recesses of the room.

"Hedwig!" Harry exclaimed, stroking her feathers. The owl clicked her beak and nibbled his ear.

"She's been in a right state," Ron stated, "Pecked us half to death when she brought your last letter-"

"Sorry about that," Harry said, still stroking Hedwig. "She didn't hurt you too badly, did she?"

Ron held up his right hand, showing the index finger that featured a deep cut in the process of healing.

"Again, sorry, but I wanted answers and I reckoned that since the fact Phantom was guarding was out of the bag-"

"You were the thing Phantom was guarding?" Hermione said, an expression of dawning understanding on her face. "That makes sense..."

"You guys didn't know?" The other two both shook their heads. "Did you guys learn anything here?"

"A little bit," Ron said slowly.

"Anything you didn't put in your letters?"

"Just some small stuff," Hermione said in a small voice. "And we really couldn't write that we staying at the headquarters of a secret society dedicated to fighting You-Know-Who.

"We wanted to tell you mate," said Ron, "Hermione was going spare, she kept saying you'd do something stupid if you were stuck on your own without news-"

"I had a half-ways decent conversation with my cousin," Harry interjected dryly. "Does that count?"

"-but Dumbledore made swear not to tell you." Ron finished as if Harry hadn't interrupted.

Being in the presence of his two best friends had ignited a warmth in Harry, like he was being hugged by an ethereal being made of light. But Ron's statement snuffed the warmth out. He could feel a cold emptiness in the pit of his stomach and it almost hurt to be in the presence of his friends.

"He seemed to think it was best," Hermione stated rather breathlessly. "Dumbledore, I mean."

"Right," Harry said. He noticed that her hands also bore bite marks. He squashed down his feelings of pleasure at the fact.

"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles-" began Ron.

"You mean the Muggles who hate my guts?" Harry responded. "Who could easily poison my food? Not that I'm complaining, I've always found cyanide to be a delightful flavoring." He squashed down his desire to insult them, to rage at them, to yell at them. The very existence of the desire was painful to Harry, who valued his friends beyond all else, and refusing to act on it was just as painful. He could imagine the hurt and scared expressions on their face if he gave in, how half of him would exalt in it and how the other half would be left feeling worse then ever. So he deflected. He told jokes, he snarked, anything to ignore that awful urge.

"They wouldn't really do that to you, would they?" Hermione asked, looking horrified.

"Nah. Who'd they have to hate and grumble about then?" Harry sat up, taking care not to dislodge the owl on his shoulder. "Besides they'd rather watch as I get my soul eaten by dementors."

"Dumbledore was right pissed about that," Ron commented. "Apparently Phantom really needed that day off and Mundungus pretty much forced him to fight dementors. The only way it could have been worse is if he had simply left without getting anyone to cover for him."

"Well I admit I prefer the way it worked out," said Harry. "I got to meet a celebrity and then I get taken to the center of the fight against Voldemort. Oh and I got to see the dementors again. I missed those blokes, haven't seen them since third year-"

"Harry, are you feeling alright?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"You're starting to sound a bit mental," Ron added.

"It's just a joke," Harry waved away their concerns. "Besides maybe this will get Dumbledore to quit walking on water and turning water into wine and tell me something." He paused for a second. "Can we do that? I remember something about an exception involving food when it come to transfiguration."

"I... actually haven't looked into transfiguring food and drink into other kinds of food and drink," Hermione admitted, sounding embarrassed. "I know you can't transfigure something into food or drink, but when it come to transfiguring food or drink itself... I'll have to talk to Professor McGonagall next time she's here."

"Sure..." Harry said. "But enough about keeping me ignorant, despite the fact I'm the one who's had to save the Philosopher's Stone, destroyed Riddle, killed a Basilisk, drove off a pack of dementors, and dueled the Dark Lord in a graveyard, ugh just thinking about how cliche that was makes me feel dirty, tell me about the Fentons and friends. And about Phantom."

"Well..." Ron began looking scared.

"Sam's wonderful!" Hermione exclaimed, all the previous tension and worry evaporating. "I told her about the plight of the house-elves and she immediately joined S.P.E.W! And then she came up for a bunch of other movements to cure the ails of the wizarding world! And I have to say, I'm tempted to become an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian like her, she makes a great argument for it."

Ron was wincing and moving away from the girl, his expression betraying a history of long and unspeakable suffering. Evidently he had been caught up in their talks. No doubt they had pestered him to join. Harry shuddered in sympathy. If Sam was anything like Hermione...

Oh Merlin, he was going to be stuck here with them both! Maybe coming here wasn't such a good thing.

"Oh and she was so excited when were getting robes and cauldrons. She said she always liked dressing like a witch, something called being a goth. Oh, and Mr. and Mrs. Fenton know so much about the Spirit Realm, even if they insist on calling it the Ghost Zone. It's so exciting to actually meet some people we talk about in Modern Magical History."

Modern Magical History was what Professor Binns taught every other day. Binns was known as a halfa among the shades Hogwarts; he was half shade and half spirit. Evidently his love of history had been so strong, that on the fateful day he got up and left his body behind he had also created a spirit. The two had merged to become the current Professor Binns, who alternated between his two halves. On some days he would be a dry boring shade, droning on about ancient history and goblin rebellions, and on other days he would be an energetic teacher, engaging the class in discussions about recent events and what they meant for the wizarding world.

"And their inventions... oooooooooh, it's so exciting to be able to get a better look at them. And since the Order's put up wards so their work can't be detected and so Danny and Sam can practice magic, I've been able to examine those inventions!"

"Wait, we can use magic here? Without being detected?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Yes, I know, it's wonderful!" Hermione rubbed her hands together gleefully. "All that work I had to put aside over the summer I can actually do now!"

Did the Order realize the depths of their folly, the horror of the madness they had unleashed? Any moment now Voldemort would reveal himself to the Ministry and beg for an alliance so they could seal this hazard away...

Harry would probably have to help them to avert the dark reign of the Study Lord.

"If we could only get Danny to practice a bit more," sighed the witch in the room.

"I think he's practicing enough. Don't you notice how tired he always seems?" Ron asked his female friend. "Not everyone can easily learn five years of magic over the summer like you and Sam. And Fred and George have been tormenting the poor bloke when they aren't ogling his sister..."

"But we're giving him extra time!" Hermione protested. "He doesn't have to help us clean and decontaminate the house. And Jazz is helping him when she isn't cooped up with a book."

"Yes, but five years of magic and Jazz is a muggle!" Ron returned. "And you're always badgering him about his parent's work and about their hometown."

"Yes, but its all so fascinating," Hermione said, putting her hands on her hips. "Just think about what effects living in a place so close to the Nevernever could have on developing wizards. That's why Ollivander gave them those Thestral hair wands. He doesn't even know what they'll be good for-"

"So he's using them as guinea pigs," Ron retorted. "And poor Tucker. He kept groaning about how stuff shouldn't be possible and how we were spitting in the face of science."

"Are the Fentons helping with the war?" Harry asked, sitting on the bed opposite where Ron had been sitting, Hedwig still on his shoulder. "What's Voldemort doing anyway?"

"We don't really know," Hermione said nervously. "The Order doesn't let us into meetings and nobody will tell us anything. We only have a general idea, and it's mostly obvious stuff."

"Like what?"

"Well, he's definitely rebuilding his army of constructs, and trying to contact things like the giants to renew their allegiance," explained the bushy haired witch. "But you probably guessed that already. But he's also looking for something."

"We don't know what and nobody will tell us anything," Ron said huffily. "The only reason we know so much is because we've been eavesdropping. Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see, and we've been using them to listen in. Mom almost found out about them, but Sam distracted her at the last second."

"We know that Snape's been spying on Voldemort for us and some other members have been trailing known Death Eaters," Hermione added. "Phantom's been guarding something, you, and investigating their homes."

"He also sometimes helps with the house. You don't want to know some of the things that have been breeding here." Ron shuddered. "If only he could do fire instead of ice..."

"Is Snape here right now?" Harry asked.

"Probably. A lot of these meetings are him giving reports." Hermione sat down on the bed opposite Harry. Ron continued standing. "Don't worry, he almost never stays."

The door opened and Ginny entered.

"It's no good with the Ears," she said closing the door behind her. And then she got a good look at Harry. "Oh Harry, I didn't know you were here yet."

"Why aren't the Ears working?" Hermione asked the youngest Weasley child.

"I think she's warded the area," Ginny answered. "The doorframe's covered in writing and the Ears keep getting repelled. I've flicked some Dungbombs at it and they just either fly away or burn up."

"Did you get a look at the writing?" Hermione asked. "What did she use? Runes? And what was the reagent?"

"I think it was Hebrew," Ginny responded. "I didn't even know she knew Hebrew. It looks like it's a repeating script. In between each repetition is some sort of hair, with four spots of blood around each strand."

"That's too bad," Hermione said, rubbing her chin and looking thoughtful. "I decided to learn Sanskrit instead of Hebrew last year, so I'm no good. Maybe if I could get a better look at the reagents."

"Oh and in the center there's another bunch of writing, Chinese or Japanese this time," Ginny added. "It's around a glass ball that she must have installed this morning while we where working on the third floor bedrooms. The balls filled with this glowing green stuff-"

"Phantom must have lent a bit of power," Hermione mused. She turned to Ron. "Has your mom always been this good with wards? Double warding in two different scripts with two different reagents is very advanced stuff."

"She's always been a bit of a fair hand at this sort of thing," Ron told her. "But she's been hitting the books since she learned Voldemort's been back. And I've seen her talking with Dumbledore and Lupin, so she's been getting help from them. And Sirius let her examine the Black family wards, so she might have picked something up from them."

"Figures that she would use it to keep us 'out of trouble'" Harry said, air quoting. "I wonder what they're talking about now."

"No clue mate," Ron said shrugging and sitting down next to Hermione. "I hope it isn't about infiltrating the Prophet again."

"Why we they want to do that?" Harry was confused. He hadn't noticed anything strange in what little he read of the British magical newspaper.

"Harry, have you been reading the Prophet?" Hermione asked, nervous once again.

"Only the headlines, seeing if Voldemort did anything big lately."

Hermione, Ron, and Ginny all winced at once.

"Mate, I hate to be the one to break this to you..."

* * *

"What do you mean Voldemort had no idea about the dementors?" Danny Phantom said in a frustrated tone. "Who else could have sent them?"

"Any number of people boy," Moody told the specter. "Overzealous Death Eaters, people at the Ministry who want Potter silenced, or even the dementors getting restless. The Ministry doesn't have the absolute control over them that they like to think they do."

There were over twenty witches and wizards in the room, many of them sitting around a long table, with the silver bearded Dumbledore at its head. On the other end sat Snape. The four Weasleys sat near the center, with the two elder Fentons. Moody stood in a corner, his eye constantly scanning the room. Some others leaned up against the walls. And Phantom floated to and fro overhead.

"It is as he says," Snape told the spirit. "The Dark Lord told me that he had ordered no such attack. And I saw no evidence to the contrary. I suppose if you doubt my judgement you could always go investigate yourself." Snape's lips curled into a sneer. "Of course doing so in the heart of his defenses would result in him binding you and turning you into a battery, but at least then you wouldn't have to rely on my word alone."

"Severous, please," Dumbledore interceded. "I'm sure Danny meant no offense."

"Yeah, I get it, you're the super-spy and all, wizard James Bond," grumbled the specter. "But I still can't believe he didn't even know about the attack until you told him."

"It is possible that he does not trust me with the information," Snape conceded. "But, as I said earlier, I see no evidence to suggest that he did know."

"My greatest concern," said Dumbledore, "is how did the dementors know that Harry would be out from the safety of the wards that night?"

"They might have been hanging around," Mr. Weasley suggested.

"No, if that were the case they should have been detected long before then," Lupin told the red haired wizard.

"What if theys just got lucky?" Mundungus asked. "Like, that was theirs first night, and they just 'ad gotten lucky that 'arry was takin a walk then. Or maybe theys been just 'oppin in at random?"

"That is certainly possible," Lupin said, mulling over the idea. "Phantom, after encountering the dementors did you recall feeling anything like that before?"

"Nope, sorry," Danny shook his head.

"Is it possible to capture one of these creatures?" Maddie asked. "If we had one on hand we could develop some kind of radar to detect them."

"Or some sort of weapon to blast them!" Jack exclaimed. "Or we could modify the wavelength of the thermos's seeking beam to interface with their energy and shift the frequncy of anti-ecto nodes by the appropriate amount..."

"This house is bad enough without bringing dementors into it," Sirius interjected. "Besides the Ministry would notice if one went missing."

"What about a foreign one?" Maddie turned to Phantom. "Do you think you could find a natural colony and freeze one? And then transport it back here?"

"I don't know," the ghost boy admitted uncomfortably. "Those things ate one of my ecto-beams. The only reason I drove them off is because I hide an unstable bit of ice power in a different blast. If they're even the littlest bit smart that won't work very often."

"That's too bad then." Maddie frowned. "They can't get in here, can they?"

"No," Sirius told the muggle. "The wards won't even let them detect this place and then there's the Fidelius Charm on top of that. Same for most spirits that Voldemort might have in his service. You need a strong one like Phantom here to break the anti-detection feature of my family's wards and then only a spirit without any hostile intent could get past the Fidelius Charm, and that's just to see the house."

"That's reassuring," Jack replied.

"And then this room is doubly warded as well," Molly Weasley spoke up, "so in the event of an attack we can just move everyone in here.

"Back to Moldywart," the ghost boy said. "Is there anything you can let us know about the magic robots? I'd rather smash them before there's too many."

"I have told everything I can that will not reveal my position as a double agent," Snape told the halfa. "Seeing as Dumbledore doesn't think destroying the constructs is more beneficial then having me as a spy at this time, I'm afraid you'll have to wait."

"Ergg, there's nothing you can tell us?" The spirit pulled at his glowing white hair. "You can't tell us anywhere to strike?"

"Not at this time."

"This sucks!" Danny Phantom complained. "I'm getting tired of waiting around for him to do something. I want to beat something of his up!"

"You'll have to deal with it guardian spirit," came Snape's sharp retort. "You're in a war now and war is mostly waiting, mixed with fear, and brief glimpses of the thing man made called Hell."

* * *

Sam wiped a cloth over Danny Fenton's head, soaking up the cold sweat that had gathered. She, Jazz Fenton, Tucker, and Danny where sitting around in the basement. Danny lay on an empty desk, Sam sat on a chair next to him. Jazz sat on a chair in the corner of the stone basement, and Tucker sat at a different desk, fiddling with technology.

There was machinery and equipment scattered all around the spacious basement. On one wall there was the half finished white construct that would be a new Fenton Portal, another held a testing cubicle, and there were desks at the rest. Various Fenton inventions lay on the desks and the shelves that the ghost hunters had added.

Tucker looked up from his work and over at Danny.

"How much longer is that meeting going to last?" Tucker's voice sounded worried. "How much longer can he last?"

"I'm fine," Danny protested through grit teeth. Jazz looked up from her book to join his friends in giving him a disbelieving look.

"Danny, you are not fine," Sam said, wringing out the cloth.

"It's not like this hurts, exactly," Danny informed her. "It's a bit like what happens after one of those enemies that likes to drain me or tries to eat me gets in a good shot. Well, sort of."

"That just shows that you aren't fine," Jazz said. "If feels like you're being eaten-"

"Not really. It's just that it feels like a piece of me is missing whenever I go into that room." Danny said, rolling on his side to face Sam and get more comfortable. Looking at Sam helped him for some reason. "That's not exactly right either. I can still sort of feel it, like the link between me and the duplicate has gotten numb, but only because I'm messing with the link. It's sorta like one arm's dealing with sleep paralysis and the other isn't, but I can't move the good arm because the paralyzed arm is holding it down."

"Why isn't the duplicate having problems? Is it because he's in ghost form?" Tucker inquired.

"No, if that were the case I'd simply go ghost," Danny groaned. "Though it might help him a bit, cause the problem is the energy I personally supplied to one of the wards on the room. It's because I designated this me as the original and he's just an independent duplicate. As long as one of us is in that room, the original will suffer."

"So why is it so painful? You can still sort of feel the connection, even if you can't do anything about it." Tucker questioned.

"Cause the connection's gone numb from my own power. It's like my energy has fallen asleep, like it's a limb or something, and that's playing havoc with my body." Danny shivered. "It's alright, if this keeps up much longer I'll just fall asleep or something."

"Why did you have to designate the you down here as the original?" Jazz asked. "Why couldn't you just make them equal again?"

"I need to remember what was said in the meeting and dispelling an equal duplicate makes that hard to do. And I can't be up there because if I have to do something after a meeting, and then something goes wrong the duplicate will dispel, and it would be much more awkward for Danny Fenton to randomly disappear, then it would be for Danny Phantom to randomly vanish."

"What if it's something dangerous and they need your support?" Sam asked. "You could get them killed if you just vanish."

"Then I ask for a bit of time to prepare, dispel, then switch places, and then Danny Fenton goes to bed early cause he studied all night again. A better question is how is that club coming along?"

"It's a mace Danny," the geek told his half ghost friend. "Not a club. And I'm still looking up the kanji we're going to use." Tucker paused for a moment. And then he spoke again.

"Danny, if a ward that you empowered can have this sort of effect on you, could making this mace mess you up?" Tucker's tone was concerned. Sam and Jazz both shot surprised looks at him. They hadn't considered that possibility at all.

"Nah," Danny groaned. "Well, I'm guessing only if you hit me with it. But that's good, if I start turning into Dark Danny, you can just whack me with it and it'll be good."

Danny closed his eyes and felt for the connection he had with his duplicate. He grit his teeth as he swam through the numbness that stopped his conscious from fully entering the room, and the backlash from his own power working against itself. He focused on the sounds, hearing them as if they were coming from a great distance away from the bottom of a pit.

"I think they're going to be done soon," Danny told his friends and sister. "I'm going to sleep for a bit. Wake me when it's time for dinner." The youngest Fenton changed position again, curling up on himself and relaxing his focus. His breathing became regular, matching pace with Sam stroking his sweat laden hair, before falling into oblivion.

* * *

AN: Busy, busy, busy, sorry it took so long to get this chapter out.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Danny Phantom.

Harry hid his furious fuming from Ron, Ginny, and Hermione. So the Daily Prophet had been slandering him. So what? It wasn't like he cared about that rag after what Rita Skeeter had done. So what if it was blatant character assassination? So what if the paper was susceptible to the manipulations of a cowardly and corrupt government? So what if it seemed to be working?

He was just attempting wandless pyro-genesis for fun...

Harry forced himself to stop when he thought he saw a flicker of smoke from the area he had been staring at. It was hard to remember, but when wizards talked about a 'heated glare' they weren't always being metaphorical.

Maybe he should start talking to that nutter house-elf, Kreacher, Ron mentioned. Hopefully he would make more sense then the entire wizarding world. Given the house it probably wouldn't happen, but hope springs eternal.

He sighed and turned his attention back to the conversation.

"So, evidently I'm an attention seeking brat," Harry said to his gathered friends. "Dumbledore's cracked, Voldemort isn't back, and the blokes who fight Voldemort have to make camp in the house of a family so steeped in the Dark Arts that I'm surprised that I don't find dementors taking tea here. Is there anything else I should know? Did Percy suddenly decide to abandon us or something?"

The urge to burn things came back when he saw Ron and Ginny wince.

* * *

"And for the final item on our agenda," Dumbledore said to the assembled members of the Order of the Phoenix, "the Fenton's report on a mundane monitoring device that can work within the ministry."

"Well, we've given the matter careful study," Maddie informed the room, standing up to deliver her report, "and it's certainly feasible. We already use various shielding on all of our devices already, and from our experiments here we've determined that most should be able to function in a highly magical environment. The problem comes from the other constraints. We need to make it so we can monitor the Hall of Prophecy in real-time and we need to keep the device concealed. We don't know what sort of interference we're going to get there, so we're not sure how the signal from the device will be effected. We could bypass that by using a land line to a relay, but that's not a very feasible option. And then the shielding takes up a certain amount of space, so there are strict limits on how much we can minimize the device."

"Could we use magical means to conceal the machine?" Mr Weasley asked. "I know Moody's got an invisibility cloak..."

"That is one avenue of possibilities we're looking into," Jack answered. "Incidentally your kids have been a great help with our research."

"Yes, well, I'm sure Fred and George are looking for new inspiration for their pranks," Molly Weasley replied with a wry smile. "But it's still nice to hear that they're at least being productive while doing so." Her expression soured as a thought struck her. "By the way, your machines still haven't found a way to spy through conceptual wards, have they?"

"Not in real time," Maddie responded "Why?"

"Because I think they've been trying to eavesdrop on these meetings- wait, what do you mean 'not in real-time'."

"Putting aside the youthful indiscretions of the twins," Dumbledore's voice cut in, "do you think you can construct something to monitor the hall?"

"Yes, but not anytime soon. We can probably build a prototype by November and if we really push ourselves we can get it working and installed by mid-December."

"Then we shall have to rely on old fashioned methods until then," said the aged wizard. "Phantom have you had a chance to test out the Ministry wards? Do you think you could help with guard duty or installing the Fenton's machine?"

"I know I can break through the outer wards if I have to," the spirit informed the silver bearded wizard. "But I'm pretty sure they'd detect it. Maybe if I hitched a ride in, but I'd rather not risk it."

"Very well. Does anyone have any other issues to bring up?" Dumbledore's twinkling eyes swept over the room, waiting for one of the gathered to speak up. "No? Then this meeting is adjourned."

Chairs scraped against the floor and the members of the Order of the Phoenix started to file towards the door.

"Phantom, a moment if you will," Albus called out to the halfa who was halfway out the ceiling.

"Yeah?" Danny asked, flipping around so he legs were going through the ceiling rather than his head.

"I have some things I would like to discuss with you in private. Do you think you could stop by my office tomorrow around one?"

"I should be able to," Danny answered. "But if something comes up..."

"It is easy to tell you aren't a spirit of punctuality," Dumbledore said with an amused twinkle in his eyes. "Stop by during this upcoming week, sometime after sunset. I'll have the wards permit you into my office. But it would work best if you came tomorrow."

"I'll try," Danny said, giving a quick two fingered salute. "Gotta run." And with that he exited the room. Danny flew up to the attic turning invisible and insubstantial. He looked around to make sure there was no one observing him. He closed his eyes and began to breath deeply.

His ghost sense wasn't exactly tuned into magic. In fact his ghost sense was more of an instinctive reaction, his core upping energy and ectoplasm production in response to a possible threat. That was why it was so hard to use it to find the ghost it reported.

Instead he had to pay attention to what alerted his core to the ghost in the first place. Danny had used it by accident before, trusting his instincts to find the ghost. Sam had suggested meditation to gain finer awareness, but meditation was not something Danny was naturally suited for. Besides his instincts worked well enough for battling ghosts.

But his instincts weren't enough when dealing with magic. He could sense things like wards when he was almost touching them but that was about it. So he caved in and went to Frostbite to see if he had known anything about meditation and magic.

Frostbite had been able to help. Danny was able to gain some rudimentary skill in sensing other ghosts and magic. He needed to enter a meditative state and just let his mind relax, focusing on his core.

His core detected other ghosts by 'tasting' the ambient energy that it took in to replace some of the energy lost by its own inefficiency All ghost cores did so, part of the reason certain spots were more hospitable to ghosts then others. Frostbite had also theorized that this was part of the reason Danny was so strong. When he was human he wasn't consuming any energy from his core unless he used some of his ghost powers. In fact he was still feeding it energy. Surprisingly this didn't cause its' production capabilities to atrophy. No, in fact it was related to the reason why older ghosts were stronger.

Excess energy, energy that wasn't consumed by use of powers or sustaining the ghost, was used to reinforce their bodies and grow their powers. Danny hadn't understood the specifics or the mechanics behind it, but he had understood Frostbite's explanation as to what it meant for him. When Danny was in his human form his ghost form consumed no energy. All the energy produced by his core, all the energy it absorbed, all the energy his human half fed it, that could go into reinforcing his spectral body and his powers. That was why he had grown so strong in such a short time.

However this was irrelevant to sensing magic. What was important was that his core absorbed some ambient energy and if he focused he could use that to 'see' the energy of ghosts and magic. Within the darkness of his mind he relaxed, falling inward, diving into himself. He focused on his center.

He knew the boundary of the house's wards was about twenty feet above the roof. He could feel the wards that Molly had set up. He could feel the connection from the 'original'. He could even make out the collection of energy that were the occupants of the house. He couldn't feel anything that seemed like an observation spell.

He opened his eyes and vanished with a very small pop.

* * *

Danny opened his eyes when he felt his missing part return. He thought he had felt a light touch stroking him, but there was no sign of it when he sat up. Sam was slightly red for some reason. Had he been radiating heat?

"Is the meeting over?" Tucker inquired. "What did you learn?" He asked eagerly.

"Voldemort didn't send the dementors," Danny informed them. "They're still guarding that place I shouldn't tell you guys about, and mom and dad are going to build something to watch it instead. There's some more stuff, but it's about scheduling and searching."

"If Voldemort didn't send those dementors, then who did?" Jazz asked.

"It was the Ministry wasn't it," Sam declared, slamming her fist into her upraised palm. "Authority's trying to silence Harry cause they don't like what he's saying."

"Considering the character assassination they're performing," said Jazz, "I don't think that they'd feel the need to kill him."

"Maybe they were hoping that'd he'd use magic," Tucker suggested. "So they could get him for the use of underage magic?"

"Nobody at the meeting knew," Danny said, holding his head in his hands. Having to sort through the memories on top of his previous condition was somewhat discomforting. "I think Mrs. Weasley just caught onto the mechanical bugs Fred and George were creating."

"You mean the ones that literally crawl out of the room?" Tucker said. "Awww, man! We spent hours designing those."

"We better shut up now," Jazz told the group, looking at the stairs. "They'll be coming down to fetch us for dinner soon."

"I've got another meeting with Dumbledore tomorrow. Maybe we'll learn more then." Danny stood up with a groan. "So does anyone know what we're going to eat?"

* * *

"So Percy values the opinion of the Daily Prophet and Rita Skeeter more then his own impression of me, and lets his ambition dominate his thinking. Oh and Fudge is making things difficult for your dad and Dumbledore." Harry said, rubbing his forehead. For once it wasn't his scar that was bothering him. There was a crack and Fred and George appeared in the room, right on either side of Harry, sitting on the bed as if they had always been there. "And these two passed their Apparation tests. This can't end well. Voldemort might as well pack up his things, the wizarding world can descend into chaos without him."

"I think Harry's a might overwrought," Fred said from the right of Harry.

"I know. What could we ever do, dear brother, that would ever cause any sort of havoc?" George responded. "Tut-tut Harry, what could you be thinking. But that's not why we're here."

"We just thought-" Fred began.

"-that we should let you know-"

"-that the meetings over-"

"-and you shouldn't let mum-"

"-hear you discussing anything important." George finished. "You know how she gets."

"They can't detect underage magic here, right?" Harry asked. "So I can hex these two? And what do you mean, 'how she gets'?"

"We simply mean that-"

"-she-"

"Don't do that," Harry warned, pointing his wand at one of the twins. His draw had been quite fast and George had to take a moment to collect his wits before continuing.

"She's a bit smothering. She doesn't want us to know anything about the Order's business," George told the boy-who-was-living. "She thinks we'll want to get involved and of course we're all 'to young' to do that."

Harry snorted.

"It doesn't matter if I want to or not," Harry replied. "I'll be minding my own business and someone will unleash the horrors Salazar Slytherin stored in his secret chamber pot and then that will start rumors that I'm the heir to his hidden toilet and it'll be up to me to put everything right. Or Voldemort will slip in a Death Eater as the new Ministry approved caretaker and he'll try and frame me for embezzling Ministry funds-"

"How would that even work?" Ron asked, confused. "I mean you aren't a Ministry employee-"

"I've got no clue, but it's not like the current administration is bound by logic anyway," Harry said, throwing up his arms. "The point is, it doesn't matter if I want to be involved, there's no way I can avoid being involved. And that's without the whole Voldemort wanting to kill me thing."

"Sorry mate, but I don't think that argument will make much headway with her," Fred told Harry, clapping him on the back. "Now, we better get out of here so she doesn't think we're doing anything suspicious."

And with that they stood up and Apparated away.

"Anything else I should know about," Harry began. "Like- actually I'm not going to say anything. Murphy has evidently decided that my wild suggestions are challenges."

"There's nothing else major," Hermione informed him.

"Good. So does anyone know what Ron's mum's making for dinner?"

* * *

Harry and Sirius's heartfelt reunion took place due to the clumsiness of Tonks and the psychotic portrait of his crazy and bitter mother. Evidently a lot of effort had been invested into that portrait, the Order had been unable to seal it away thus far. Or maybe it was simply the power of her hate. Either way waking her up was a sure fire way to hear a rant about blood traitors and mudbloods.

Harry had inquired as to why they didn't simply burn it. Sirius had told him nobody wanted to set off whatever booby traps she had hidden in the painting.

As he was talking with Sirius, four people entered the hallway. There was a dark skinned boy in glasses, a yellow shirt, greenish pants, and a red beret, fiddling with some sort of muggle electronic. There was a red haired girl with a blue hairband, nearly as tall as Maddie Fenton, with aqua eyes, in a black shirt and blue pants. Harry probably glanced at her a bit longer then really necessary.

Next was another girl, a violet eyed one with hair as black as night. She was dressed in some odd muggle fashion, the colors all black and purple. She was half a head shorter then the boy next to her.

It was the boy next to her that surprised Harry. Unruly jet black hair like his own, around his height, and somewhat pale, a bit like Harry himself. His eyes at least were different, a clear and almost icy blue.

"And here are our guests," Sirius announced. "Everyone, this is my godson, Harry Potter."

"Hello, I'm Tucker Foley," the dark skinned boy said, offering a hand.

"I'm Jazz Fenton," said the red head. "We've heard a lot about you."

"I wouldn't believe anything you've heard," Harry replied, shaking Tucker's hand. "The whole rumor about me juggling dragon eggs while standing on my broom naked and drunk while being chased by the angry mother is a complete fabrication."

"I'm Sam Manson," said the dark haired girl. "Environmentalist extraordinaire."

"And I'm Danny Fenton," the final newcomer said, offering up his hand as well. Harry released Tucker's and took his. Something deep inside him said it was appropriate to greet this boy as an equal.

"Nice to meet you," Harry replied to the group. "I hope they've been treating you well."

"Well Mrs. Weasley's been stuffing us..." Jazz began.

"Or at least trying to," Tucker interjected. "I think she takes me as a challenge."

"So what are you lot doing up here anyway?" Sirius asked. "Dinner's in the basement dining room."

"Stretching our legs," Danny replied. "We were cooped up in the basement the whole meeting after all."

"Harry!" A voice called out. Everyone turned to see Mr. Weasley hurrying forward. "Good to see you! I see you've already met our guests."

Over his shoulder, Harry saw Bill. The curse breaker carrying sheets of rolled up parchment from whatever room the meeting had been held in. His hair swished in a ponytail behind him.

"Journey all right, Harry?" The eldest Weasley child asked. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland, or try to have Phantom slip you through the Spirit World?"

"He would've if he could've," Tonks announced, walking over. She knocked over a candle on the way. Harry was astounded that someone so clumsy could be an Auror. Hopefully her coordination improved in combat.

"Sorry," Tonks said sheepishly, trying to contain the mess.

"Here, dear." Mrs. Weasley swept onto the scene and cleared up the wax with a charm. "Why don't you go see who's staying for dinner?"

Which would keep her away from helping with the sharp silverware or breakable plates. Harry nodded to himself. Good job Mrs. Weasley.

"Sit down Harry," Sirius said. "You've met Mundungus, haven't you?"

"Actually I haven't," Harry replied. "He never showed up after Phantom drove off the dementors. Where is he?"

Sirius indicated a pile of rags. Harry's eyebrows shot up. That was a person? Then the pile stirred.

"Some'n say m' name?" The rags grumbled. There was movement and then Harry could make out the man. He had scraggly ginger hair, was unshaven, short bandy legs, and bloodshot eyes. He smelt of tobacco and alcohol. Harry was glad that Phantom had been there that night instead of the man before him. Harry probably would have needed to protect Mundungus from the dementors rather then the other way around.

"The meeting's over, Dung," said Sirius. Everyone sat down at the table. "Harry's arrived."

"Eh?" Mundungus peered balefully at Harry through his hair. "Blimey, so 'e 'as. Yeah..."

Mundungus fumbled around in his pocket for a moment and pulled out a black and grimy pipe. He stuck it in his mouth, lit it with his wand, and began to smoke. Clouds of billowing green smoke obscured him in moments. Harry rolled his eyes. Regular tobacco evidently wasn't good enough for him, he needed magical stuff.

"For the last time, Mundungus," called Mrs. Weasley. "You will not smoke that thing in the kitchen. Do you want me to make it so you can't smoke it in this house at all?"

"Ah," replied Mundungus nervously. "Right. Sorry, Molly." He stowed the pipe back in his pocket and waved his wand to vanish the leftover smoke. For a moment the smell of burning socks lingered and then vanished with the smoke.

Heavy knives chopped meat and vegetables under the watchful eye of the Weasley patriarch, while the matriarch of the family stirred a cauldron over a fire. Others took out plates, goblets, and food from the pantry.

Something brushed against his knees. He looked down and saw Crookshanks, Hermione's bandy-legged ginger cat, who wound himself around Harry's legs once, purred and then jumped up into Sirius's lap. Sirius began to pet him without realizing it. Evidently Hermione's cat still had fond memories of the fake dog.

"Had a good summer so far?"

"Well, I consider the highlight to be the dementor attack, so yes actually. There's nothing I love more then being cooped up with the relatives who hate me and kept in the dark about the madman who wants to kill me." Harry replied, doing his best to keep his tone from becoming venomous. "Even if it is for a good reason. Is there anyone here who knows how to counter Legilimency?"

"Well..." Sirius began reluctantly, "As much as I hate to admit it, Snivellous is probaly the best living Occlumentist-"

"I'll take it," Harry responded instantly. "Anything to get involved on my own terms."

"Eh?" Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"No matter what happens, I'm going to get involved," Harry informed his godfather. "It never fails to happen, every year I get mixed up in something. I just want to have some control over it this time. But enough about that. How have you been?"

"Bleh," Sirius responded. "I've been cooped up in here for a month."

"How come?" Asked Harry, frowning.

"Because the Ministry of Magic's still after me, and Voldemort will know all about me being an Animagus by now, Wormtail will have told him, so my big disguise is useless. There's not much I can do for the Order of the Phoenix... or so Dumbledore feels."

From the tone of his godfather's voice, Harry could tell that he shared his own displeasure with the headmaster, despite the necessity of Dumbledore's measures. He felt a surge of affection for his godfather. The only thing that brought people closer together then shared suffering, was sharing the suffering of shared enemies.

"Well at least you've known what's been going on," Harry said bracingly.

"Oh yeah," replied his godfather. "Listening to Snape's reports, having to take all his snide hints that he's out there risking his life, asking me how'st he cleaning going. Urg. I cannot wait until we get a lead on where he's making his war golems, so I can help Phantom break something."

"Sirius?" It was Mundungus who spoke up. He had been closely examining a silver goblet. "This solid silver, mate?"

"Yes," said Sirius, surveying it with distaste. "Finest fifteenth century goblin-wrought silver, embossed with the Black family crest."

"That'd-" Mundungus was interrupted by the arrival of Maddie Fenton who snatched the goblet out of his hand. She put some sort of device, like a jeweler's glass over her eye and began to examine the goblet herself.

"No obvious signs of any supernatural energies," she muttered to herself. "But it could be embedded in the chemical bonds. Maybe if we could... Sirius, do you mind if we run some experiments on this?"

"You can melt it for all I care," Sirius answered.

"That has a good chance of happening," Mrs. Fenton said, still examining the goblet.

There was a brief commotion from the kitchen. Fred and George had evidently charmed dinner to float over, only for something to go wrong and spill. Harry idly noted a knife embedded in the wall. That could have been very bad.

"For heaven's sake," roared Mrs. Weasley, red with rage. "There's no need! - I've had enough of this! - Just because you're allowed to use magic now you don't have to whip out your wands for every little thing!"

Harry wondered about that. Most witches and wizards seemed to do so. That's right, he could use magic for mundane chores now too.

"Boys," Mr. Weasley said, putting the stew in the middle of the table. "Your mother's right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now that you've come of age-"

"-none of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" Mrs. Weasely raged at the twins, slamming a fresh flagon of butterbeer onto the table, and nearly spilling as much as the twins. "Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't Charm everything he met! Percy-"

She stopped dead. Mr. Weasley had a wooden look on his face. Nobody said anything. For a little bit there was only the sound of everyone getting ready to eat. Then Maddie Fenton turned to Sirius.

"I've been meaning to ask you," she said to the owner of the house. "Do you know if there's any residue from that boggart creature that was in the drawing room? The one that Phantom got in that fight with?"

"Probably. I just put it all in bags because I wasn't sure what would happen if I vanished it." Sirius said. "There somewhere around the house."

"Huh?" Harry said, lost.

"Phantom sensed something in the writing desk in the drawing room," Sirius explained. "Turns out he had never encountered a boggart before... but he had encountered spirits that transform into someone's worst fear. Evidently the best way to deal with them was overwhelming fire power..."

"I've never seen something burn, freeze, and disintegrate before," Tonks said from opposite Harry.

"It took ages to clean everything up," Ginny added. "At least it took care of the doxy infection in the curtains."

"Alright, I think I got it," Danny said. He and Sam where reading a book at the table together. Danny turned to his empty goblet and pointed his wand at it.

"Aguamenti!" He cried out.

The goblet filled with sand.

"How does that even work!" Danny groaned, pulling at his hair. "I could have understood fire, ice, or even the thing blowing up, but sand? It makes no sense!"

Hermione waved her wand and vanished the sand. Evidently she had been making good use of her study time.

"Maybe it was the wand movements?" She suggested. "Try it again."

Mr. Weasley, Bill, Jack Fenton, and Lupin, were having an intense discussion about goblins.

"They're not giving anything away yet," said Bill. "I still can't work out whether they believe he's back or not. 'Course they might prefer not to take sides at all. Keep out of it."

"Could they do that?" Jack asked. "From what I've heard Voldemort-" Mr. Weasley and Bill shuddered. "-doesn't really like corporal magical non-humans."

"Considering all the business they do with the old families, there's a chance they could get away with it," Bill told the muggle.

"I'm sure they'd never go over to You-Know-Who," said Mr. Weasley, shaking his head. "They've suffered losses too. Remember that goblin family he murdered last time, somewhere near Nottingham?"

"I think it depends on what they're offered," said Lupin. "And I'm not talking about gold; if they're offered freedoms we've been denying them for centuries-"

"But would Voldemort offer them? Would he even pretend to?" Jack asked. "If he's anything like mundane racists and facists..."

Harry's attention turned to a gale of laughter from the middle of the table. Fred, George, Ron, Tucker, and Mundungus were rolling around in their seats.

".. . and then," choked Mundungus, tears running down his face, "and then, if you'll believe it, 'e says, ''ere, Dung, where didja get all them toads from? Cause some son of a Bludge's gone and nicked all mine!"

"Ah," sighed Tucker wiping a tear from his eye, "everything does sound funnier in a British accent."

Molly Weasley came over and began to scold the crook. Her sons hid their faces in their butterbeers. Mrs. Weasley shot a nasty look at Sirius before going to fetch pudding. Harry looked at his godfather.

"Molly doesn't approve of Mundungus," said the Animagus in an undertone.

"How come he's in the Order?" Harry inquired quietly.

"He's useful," Sirius muttered. "Knows all the crooks-well, he would seeing as he's one himself. He gets the Fentons all sort of things that would be impossible for them to have otherwise. He's very loyal to Dumbledore, who helped him out of a tight spot once. It pays to have someone like Dung around."

During pudding Harry turned to Danny and Sam.

"So what house do you houses do you think you two will be sorted into?" He asked the two newcomers to the magical world.

"We've already been," Sam replied.

"Huh?"

"Transfers don't get sorted at the ceremony," Hermione explained. "Think about, you don't remember anyone other then first years being sorted do you? No transfers get sorted a head of time. It helps to avoid some of the trouble that comes from arranging their schedules."

"Oh," Harry said. "So which houses did you two get into?"

"Ravenclaw," Sam said proudly. "Which is cool. There should be plenty of people to help me with magical history and old languages."

"Gryffindor," Danny said in a surly tone.

"What's wrong with Gryffindor?" Harry asked. He had never run into someone who was disgruntled to be in Gryffindor before.

"It's not that," Danny explained. "The stupid hat could've at least thought about it for a second. I resent the implications in its' fast decision."

Pudding continued and then ended. The waist-band on Harry's jeans were feeling uncomfortably tight. He lay down his spoon and noted the general lull in conversation. Mr. Weasly was leaning back in his chair, looking replete and relaxed. Tonks was yawning widely. Ginny was playing with Crookshanks. Mrs. Fenton was leaning against her husband who was patting his stomach. Danny and Sam were engrossed in their spell book. And Tucker was...

...having another helping of everything. No wonder Mrs. Weasley thought him a challenge. Where did he put it all?

"Nearly time for bed, I think," said Mrs. Weasley on a yawn.

"Not just yet, Molly," said Sirius, pushing away his empty plate and turning to look at Harry. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start finding out everything that we could let you learn about what Voldemort's up to."

"I didn't know what would be confidential and what wouldn't be-" Harry began. There was a change in atmosphere in the room. All of the Fentons, including the children sat up straight, eyes becoming focused as if there would be a fight soon. Lupin set down his goblet, looking wary. "And since nobody would tell Ron and Hermione anything-"

"And everyone was right not to tell them things!" Mrs. Weasley said. "You're all too young!" She was sitting bolt upright in her chair, her fists clenched upon its arms, every trace of drowsiness gone.

"That hasn't seemed to matter before," Danny spoke up. Mrs. Weasley turned the full force of her glare on him. "Eep! Shutting up now!" Danny slunk down in his chair, shrinking in on himself.

"He's got a point," Harry added. "And I get we're not allowed in the Order, but I just want to ask some questions-"

"He's been trapped in that muggle house for a month," Sirius continued for his godson. "He's got a right to know what's been happen-"

"Hang on!" George interrupted. Then Mrs. Weasley's glare turned upon him, somehow growing in intensity. "Never mind," George finished.

"Mrs. Weasley," Jazz began diplomatically. "Look at it this way. I'm a muggle and I know more about what's been going on then Harry does. Don't you think he deserves to be brought up to speed?"

"I'm sure Ron and Hermione have told him everything he needs to know," Mrs. Weasley said to Jazz civilly.

"Which might not be enough," Sirius continued. "He's involved in this more then they are." He was polite, but Harry got the impression that he was preparing to have a fight. Against Mrs. Weasley? Harry gave a brief prayer for his soul.

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" Mrs. Weasley said sharply. Her normally kind face was setting off all sorts of survival instincts in Harry. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said I suppose."

"Which bit?"

"The part about not telling Harry more than he _needs to know_!"

The people not involved in the fight were watching the argument like it was a tennis rally, eyes following each volley. Harry thought he saw Mrs. Fenton keeping score. Was it something about red haired families or red haired women?

"I don't intend to tell him more then he _needs to know _Molly," Sirius returned. "But he was the one who saw Voldemort come back. He has more right than most to-"

"He's not a member of the Order of the Phoenix! He's only fifteen and-"

"- And he's dealt with as much as most in the Order. And more than some-"

"No one's denying what's he's done! But he's still-"

"He's not a child," said Sirius impatiently.

"He's not an adult either!" Mrs. Weasley shot back, the color rising in her cheeks. "He's not-"

"But he is becoming one Molly," Jack cut in. "He's going to have to deal with all this soon."

"My husband is right," Maddie added. "You might not being doing him any favors."

"Who asked you!" The Weasley mother snapped. "Dumbledore must have had his reason for not wanting Harry to know too much and speaking as someone who has got Harry's best interests at heart-"

"He's not your son," Sirius said quietly.

"He's as good as," said Mrs. Weasley fiercely. All the anger, all the frustration, all the bitterness that Harry had been feeling that day melted away at that statement. He knew it was the perfect time to step in.

"Mrs. Weasley," he said gently, feeling more serene than the had since Voldemort came back. "You have no idea what it means to me to hear that."

Mrs. Weasley relaxed a little bit, blushing gently.

"But they're right. I'm going to have to deal with this sooner or later." Harry continued. "Voldemort's coming after me personally. During my last four years at Hogwarts, each year I've gotten entangled with his leftovers, and now that I'm back there's no way that I can avoid getting involved with him this year. So I want to do it on my own terms for once. I don't want tragedy to take me unawares again."

"Harry," Mrs. Weasley said softly. "You shouldn't have to worry about such things. You're still at school and the adults responsible for you-"

"The ones that care about me have a tendency to die or become fugitive due to circumstances between me and Voldemort," Harry cut in. "I don't want that to happen to you."

"Harry you don't need to-" Molly began, but Harry gently overrode her.

"Look, I know why Dumbledore didn't want me knowing some things. I've got no way to protect my mind from any passing Legilimentist and that made me a security threat over at the Dursley's. But now that I'm here that's a rather moot point. And other things he probably didn't want me to know to stop me from running away from the Dursley's and getting in over my head. But once again that's a moot point because I'm here now." Harry explained. "I get that there's a lot of things I shouldn't know, but there's also so much that I should."

"Harry," Mrs. Weasley began. She took a deep breath and sighed. "Do you really feel that way?"

"Yes."

She walked over to him and wrapped him in a tight hug.

"I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have to worry about all this-"

"But I do. I'm sorry, but I really need to do this." Harry told her, returning her hug.

"I don't agree with it, but I suppose it's better to let you ask some things," Mrs. Weasley released him from the hug and returned to her seat. "But only some things." She looked at her children and Hermione and sighed. "And I suppose you'll probably tell them everything you hear, won't you. Because you're a very good and sweet boy and they're your friends."

"Well, I don't know about sweet," Harry replied. "But yeah, I'd tell them."

Mrs. Weasley looked at the Fentons, Tucker, and Sam.

"They've had their own struggles," Jack Fenton told her. "Amity Park has had plenty of large scale ghost problems."

Molly sighed.

"Okay," Sirius began, looking a little relieved. No one entered a fight with Molly Weasley without some apprehension. "What do you want to know? Actually, could you answer one question for me first?"

"Alright."

"About what you said before... is that why you signed up for all those healing courses this year?"

"Pretty much," Harry replied, looking down at his lap. It was an awkward subject for him. "I mean if I was any good, I might have been able to help Cedric."

"Harry, there wasn't anything you could have done-" Mrs. Weasley tried to comfort him.

"It was only the Lesser Killing Curse," Harry said, raising his voice. "If I had some sort of training-"

"Lesser Killing Curse?" Danny interrupted. "There's more then one type."

"Not until the last war," Lupin informed him. "Before Voldemort there was only the Killing Curse. But after he invented the Greater Killing Curse-"

"What's the difference?" This time it was Tucker who asked.

"Well, let me explain a bit about the Lesser Killing Curse," Lupin began. "It's a jet-type spell with entropic properties that stops all vital functions if it hits a human target, and it can be used by any moderately powerful wizard. If it hits something other than a human it destabilizes and releases entropic and free energy. It's technically an unblock-able spell because any attempt to block it with a wand like one does with other jet type spells causes it to explode and that close to the wizard it's just like being hit with the spell itself. However if one uses a shield spell or conjures something solid, with enough distance between them and the curse, one can easily stop the spell. A shield spell or any other magical defense with be disrupted by the entropic energy, and free energy would damage a solid object, but the curse will be expended. And if one gets hit by the spell, if a healer moves fast enough, they can revive them. You muggles do it all the time with patients who are technically dead. In fact its easier to revive them using muggle techniques."

"The Greater Killing Curse," continued the werewolf. "The Greater Killing Curse is an entirely different story. Only Voldemort knows its nature. All we know are the effects."

"What are they?" Danny Fenton asked, eyes sharp.

"Everything dies. People, magic, and even stone, die and turn to dust," Lupin informed the boy. "He's even managed to permanently kill a phoenix with it once. It's not a jet-type spell either. It's more like a wave. I've seen Voldemort wipe out entire rooms full of wizards and golems with it before. Dumbledore once managed to slow it down by ripping up a heavy stone floor and conjuring a hill behind that, but that's it. He only slowed it down. And only one person has ever survived it." He glanced over at Harry.

"He can also use a single person variation," Harry added. His mind flashed back to the night the Dark Lord returned.

Harry had never seen such a foul shade of green before. He had always associated green with things like grass, friendly snakes, his mother's eyes, the forests around Hogwarts... He had never associated it with death before. But that was the only thing that the foul, sickly green of the Greater Killing Curse reminded him of. Voldemort had shaped it like a fiery bullet, compressing all of the dread energy of the curse. But even he couldn't fully contain it in that shape. Rings of sickly green fire had radiated out from the bullet as it sped towards Harry. When the fire had touched the grass, the grass withered, died, and then became dust. The ground beneath the grass had disintegrated and had been blown away by the wind from the curse.

To Harry it looked like a monster with one glowing green eye was charging, obscuring its' body in the dust it kicked up. An unstoppable force which broke even the earth.

All Harry could do was oppose it with the tiny jet of red light that had been his disarming spell.

And in the end his choice to fight had been what had the only thing that mattered.

"But enough about that," Harry shook the memory out of his head. "Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the muggle news and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything-"

"That's because there haven't been any suspicious deaths yet," answered Sirius, "not so far as we know anyway... And we know quite a lot."

"More than he think's we do anyway," said Lupin.

"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked. He knew that Voldemort had murdered more then once last year alone.

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself at the moment," Sirius informed his godson. "It would be dangerous for him to do so. You messed up his come back something fierce you see."

"How?" Harry asked. All he'd done was escape.

"You weren't supposed to survive!" Said Sirius. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness."

"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return was Dumbledore," said Lupin. "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."

"And I take it that helped?"

"Thanks to you Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix, the only organization composed completely of wizards capable of fighting in the front lines, the organization blessed with nearly unlimited phoenix reagents."

"So what's the Order been doing?" Harry inquired.

"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans and gather our own strength."

"How are you gathering strength?"

"Well we've been recruiting the younger Ministry personal who believe us, such as Tonks here," Sirius said. The clumsy Auror waved cheerily. "Kingsley Shacklebolt as well. And then there was the jackpot we scored with Phantom..."

"We were just moving to protect the Fentons here," Lupin told Harry. "Voldemort was planning on moving against them you see and I was sent to warn them and offer the Order's aid. I was also supposed to inform Phantom about the threat to his town and ask him for help, but no one expected him to agree the way he did. You see during the last war, we left the spiritual front to the Ministry. Dealing with spirits can be rather difficult and the Ministry has the trained personal to handle it. But Phantom, for whatever reason, is a remarkably human like spirit."

(Danny hid a grin.)

"Thus we were able to bring him into the order without problems," Lupin finished up.

"Phantom is our greatest front-line asset," Sirius said. "And with the proper support, he's potentially just as great as a covert asset as Snape. He's going to make a huge difference in this war."

(Danny managed to hide his blush.)

"And then there's the Fentons themselves. Those whose inventions challenge magic itself." Sirius nodded his head respectfully. "Mortals who conquer the immortal without the use of magic."

Jack and Maddie blushed.

"They've been building devices for us," Sirius continued. "Devices that the Death Eaters won't have any idea how to handle. Devices that can bypass wards and guarding spells. Machines that can stop magic. It's wonderful."

"Sounds like Voldemort doesn't have a chance," Harry joked, grinning.

"Well he's got his own plans," Lupin spoke up.

"How d'you know hat his plans are?" Harry asked quickly.

"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea," sad Lupin, "and Dumbledore's shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate."

"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?"

"Well, firstly, he wants to build up his arm again," Sirius explained. "In the old days he had huge numbers to command. His core of loyal Death Eaters, the armies of weaker dark wizards and witches, a great variety of Dark creatures and mindless spirits, and his army of constructs. You heard him planning to recruit the giants; well they'll be just one group he's after. He's certainly not going to take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen Death Eaters."

"So you're trying to stop him from building his armies?"

"We're doing our best," said Lupin. "But Snape can't reveal the location of where he's building his constructs without tipping Voldemort off."

"And we've been trying to convince as many people as possible that You-Know-Who really has returned, to put them on their guard," said Bill. "It's proving tricky though."

"Because of the Ministry?" Harry asked. "Cause of what they're printing in the Prophet and what they've done to Dumbledore?"

"Exactly," Bill said.

"But why is Fudge being so stupid?" Harry questioned, frustrated. "I know he's a politician and all, but if Dumbledore-"

"And there's the problem," Mr. Weasley said with a wry grin. "_Dumbledore._"

"How's he a problem?" Harry inquired, growing frustrated once more.

"From what I've heard," Jack Fenton spoke up. "The short answer is that Fudge's jealous and scared. He knows that if Albus had wanted his job he'd have had it. Fudge knows our guy is smarter and more magical then him."

"Which is why he pestered Dumbledore for advice." Harry nodded.

"Right. But now your Minister has grown to like power and he's telling himself that he's the smart one and Dumbledore's making a mess to take it from him."

"Just why?" Harry grit his teeth.

"Cause he doesn't want to deal with all the trouble of Voldemort being back," Jack continued. "Our politicians do stuff like that all the time back in America. Well, publicly at least. For something like this there'd probably be people handling it privately and away from the public eye."

"But, but, just, arrggh," Harry rubbed his forehead. Maybe the impending doom from either Fred and George being able to Apparate or Hermione becoming the Study Lord wasn't a bad thing. Cleanse the world with pranks and homework! "But if Voldemort's trying to recruit people, it's bound to get out that he's back, isn't it?"

"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry" said Sirius. "He tricks, jinxes, and blackmails them. He's well practiced in operating in secrecy. In any case, gathering followers is only one thing he's interested in, he's got other plans too, plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed, and he's concentrating on them for the moment."

"What's he after apart from followers?" Harry asked swiftly. Sirius and Lupin exchanged a very fleeting glance.

"Stuff he can only get by stealth."

Harry looked puzzled.

"Like a weapon," Sirius continued. "Something he didn't have last time."

"When he was powerful before? Something that might be worse than the Greater Killing Curse." Harry held up his hands. "Alright, I'm guessing this is confidential and where I should probably quit asking questions."

"You're right Harry," Mrs. Weasley pounced on his admittance. "All of you should get to bed, now." She looked at Fred, George, Ron, and Hermione. "And I know you two have to study," she said to Danny and Sam. "But could you do that somewhere quiet."

"Can do Mrs. W," Danny replied.

"Alright," Sirius said. "I guess we've said enough for now. I'll see you in the morning Harry."

Harry nodded and joined his friends in heading to bed.

* * *

AN: Managed to write this chapter while waiting for the beta's to get back to me on Symbiosis. It's somewhat easier to write this at times; for one I don't hold myself to the same chapter format as I do for Symbiosis, and for another it's easier to reference a book than a show.

My brain feels empty now. Ugh, I hope that's not an omen or anything.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter or Danny Phantom

Mrs. Weasley followed them up to the first landing looking tired.

"I want you all to go straight to bed, no talking," the Weasley matriarch told the adolescents, "but I know I'm not going to get that. Just try to go to sleep as quick as you can."

Hermione and Ginny bade the group goodnight as they headed to their room. Harry was mildly disappointed by that. He had just gotten a boat-load of new intelligence and (he meant no offense to his best mate) he was supposed to analyze it with only Ron to help him?

No, Ron was for the end of the year, creating tactics to help deal with the usual end of the year mess. Hermione was for the beginning of the year, when they had to figure out what the mess would be like. Mrs. Weasley's bedtime was messing with the established order of the universe!

Actually that was pretty impressive. Maybe it was a sign of the red haired witch's true power. Harry wondered if he could simply set her on Voldemort and solve all his problems. Or at least set her on one of Voldemort's lieutenants...

Harry then realized that the year hadn't technically started yet. The Weasley mother hadn't upset the established order of the universe.

Fooie. Reality, always getting in his way.

"Night," he heard Ron say to the twins. Harry snapped back to cold hard reality and followed suite. He and his red haired friend entered their room and then started preparing for bed. The owls were clattering around on top one of the wardrobes. Harry and Ron chucked Owl Treats at them to calm them down.

"Why can't we just let them out?" Harry asked Ron.

"Dumbledore doesn't want too many owls swooping around the square, thinks it'll look suspicious. Oh yeah ... I forgot..." The youngest Weasley walked to the door and slid the bolt.

"Why'd you do that?" Harry asked. Then he thought for a moment. He came to a realization, a horrible horrible realization. His face went paler than when he had been face to face to the dementors. His could have been used as the picture for the encyclopedia entry for fear. "Don't tell me..."

"It's so Kreacher doesn't get in. Trust me, you don't want to wake up and find him prowling around your room."

"Oh, thank the gods," Harry clutched at his chest. "I thought they had Snape doing wake up calls."

Ron gaped at his friend for a moment.

"Anyway...", the red haired boy began, getting into his bed, "what d'you reckon?"

"Well... I have to say I'm disappointed with my clearance level," Harry replied. "We could have guessed most of that. The only new bit is about how valuable Phantom is and that Voldemort- Oh suck it up. Sirius and Lupin use the name. You should start as well. -is trying to recruit people and the Order is trying to stop them "

"You're right," Ron replied. "About the guessing part, not about the part where I should say You-Know-Who's name. Those Extendable Ears-"

Ron was interrupted by a loud crack and two bodies appearing on top of him.

"Keep your voice down little brother or you'll attract Mum's attention," one of the dark figures scolded. Fred or George by the voice.

"Then you two gits shouldn't have Apparated on my knees!"

"Yeah, well, it's harder in the dark-", Harry saw the dark figures get off Ron's bed. Bed-springs groaned as George sat down on the bed near Harry's feet.

"So, got there yet?" George asked eagerly.

"Got where? Pismo Beach?" Harry answered. "We were on our way but I think we should have made a left turn at Albuqerque."

"You lost me mate. We meant the weapon Sirius mentioned." Fred said, the poor deprived soul.

"Of course," Harry replied. "How silly of me. No we haven't started talking about the weapon yet. And before we do, I just want to ask everyone something."

"What?" Ron, Fred, and George asked in unison.

"Doesn't Danny Fenton look very similar to Danny Phantom? Minus the constant glowing."

"So you noticed," George replied. "Hermione noticed it right off the bat, but poor Ron here took forever."

"Hey!" Ron protested. "It only took me a week."

"We know little brother, we know," Fred said. "But moving on. Yes, they do look alike."

"Why? And why the hell are they both named Danny?" There was no such thing as coincidence Harry knew. There was only the universe trying to get him.

"Well the Order's been gossiping about it for a while," George spoke up. "Most of them think that Danny Fenton accidently created Danny Phantom when he turned on his folk's portal to the Nevernever..."

"A portal to the Nevernever..." Harry groaned and his palm met his face. "And Voldemort sent people to try and kill them. People who can find this portal..."

"Don't worry about it mate. They shut off the one in the States and Phantom told me he had that girl-spirit that looks like him guarding the place." Ron informed Harry. "Also, You-Know-Who never sent anyone to kill them. Dumbledore had Snape tell him that we got the Fentons."

"Hopefully he's not searching for something like that," The-Boy-Who-Lived said into his palm. He looked back up. "But what do you mean most of the Order reckons that 'Danny created Phantom?'"

"Something about when he turned on the portal he was inside the chamber," spoke Ron. "And about how he was between the real world and the Spirit World for a bit. They think that something happened and Phantom got created."

"Like he imprinted his personality on some ectoplasm," offered George, "and that ectoplasm turned into Phantom."

"He might have needed help getting out of there," Fred added. "And some good mindless spirit got involved, getting souped up and mixed with Danny in the process."

"Or there's Hermione's theory," said Ron, "that Danny's magic reacted to the pain and danger, so it grabbed some ectoplasm (the lucky git) and created a 'super-hero' thing. I don't get that girl sometimes, what sort of hero is a 'super-hero'?"

"It's a muggle term," Harry replied. "And that makes a lot of sense."

Harry thought about it some more.

"Isn't Phantom included in the meetings?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you think he's told Danny anything?"

"No way!" Fred began.

"After all-"

"-that would be-"

"-irresponsible and-"

"-Phantom would never- Ouch!"

"I warned you two not to do that," Harry said, wand still pointing at the twins as they rubbed the places the Stinging Hex hit. "Have either of you two confirmed that Phantom hasn't told Fenton anything?"

"Yes we asked them both," Ron replied. "And mate, have you been practicing your draw or something?"

"I haven't had too much else to do this summer," Harry replied. "As long as I can use magic during the summer I think I'll work on my accuracy as well. I think a nice routine of constant heavy sparring would be lovely for these remaining summer months, don't you?"

The three brothers exchanged nervous glances. Defense Against the Dark Arts was Harry's subject and then there was all that training he went through at the end of the last year...

Fenton. And Manson. They needed practice. Some practical work would be just the thing. Yes they could be the sacrfices-partner, partners to slake Harry's bloodlust- satisfy his drive to improve.

"We'll pass," George told Harry. "But enough about all that. What do reckon the weapon is?"

"It's the only thing we heard that the Extendables hadn't told us about already," said Fred. "'Could be almost anything."

"But it couldn't be worse than the Greater Killing Curse," said Ron. "What's worse than death?"

Harry, Fred, and George simply gave him a look.

"Right, stupid question," Ron flushed and looked down. "But I meant that as works as a weapon."

"Could be a particularly painful way of killing someone," Harry suggested. "But you don't need a curse to do that. My relations have been working at it for fifteen years now."

"Nah, he's got the Cruciatus Curse for causing pain," Fred answered with a wave. "I can't imagine he'd need something else. Maybe a Greater or Mass Imperious Curse."

"How do you know he doesn't already have that?" Harry asked. "Look at the country right now. But what about some new blasting spell?"

"Why would he need one of those?" Ron asked.

"It's a classic. How 'bout any mystic artifacts that he might want?" Harry questioned. "Any books of ancient lore, hidden away in dungeons that none have returned alive from and yet have inexplicably accurate maps and healing potions?"

"Nah."

"Nope."

"Got nothing," Ron tapped his chin. "We might be looking at this the wrong way."

"How so-" George began.

"-dear broth- Ouch!"

"I will keep hexing you two until you quit this," Harry warned them. "Go on Ron."

"Right," the youngest Weasley male nodded. "We've been thinking of the 'weapon' like its a spell or an object. Cause that's what weapons usually are."

"Yes, oh brother-" George began.

Fred didn't say anything.

"Good." Harry told the twins, lowering his wand a fraction.

"Oh brother who states the obvious," George finished.

"Shut up git," Ron responded. "My point is a weapon is anything that can be used to hurt your enemy. It's like chess, most beginning players think you beat the other guy by taking all their pieces, but what you really want to do is position your pieces on the board to gain control. You want to take positions more than pieces. This weapon might be a place, a person, or knowledge. Any one thing that he could use to hurt us and the Ministry."

Harry, Fred, and George mulled over this.

"That is true," Harry was the first to reply. "Though I'd like to say my suggestion about a tome of ancient lore counts as information. But more specifically... you don't think Phantom is the weapon? No, he only came by accident. The Fentons were more of an afterthought on Voldemort's part." Harry continued, thinking aloud, ignoring the sharp intakes of breath from Ron and the twins. "So its probably nothing spiritual. Let's see. People... well there's me I guess. With all the links we have he might be able to make me into some sort of weapon. But I think things would have been handled differently then...

"What else is there... Places. There's Hogwarts, St. Mungo, and wherever the Ministry is located. With Hogwarts I would imagine that you could make use of the age of the castle, the four great spirits, and the pre-existing enchantments. Actually I want to run that by Hermione, I want to try and make a 'Pig Star' installation to shoot Voldemort from across the country...

"Information. Confirmation that Snape's on his side, that's a big one. The inner workings of the Hogwarts wards." Harry sighed. "There are too many possibilities for us to guess. Let's leave this till the morning when Hermione can help us."

The Weasley brothers nodded their agreement. There was another crack and the twins vanished. Harry yawned and pulled the covers closer.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them there were many-legged creatures were cantering softly up and down outside the bedroom door, and Hagrid was saying, 'Beauties, aren't they, eh, Harry? We'll be studyin' weapons this term...' and Harry saw that the creatures had cannons for heads and were wheeling to face him... He ducked...

* * *

"Aguamenti!" Sam cried out in the lab. The goblet she was pointing her wand at filled with water.

"Aguamenti!" Danny cried out. The goblet he was pointing his wand at caught fire. Danny quickly looked around for any witnesses and then froze the goblet.

"How did you manage to light metal on fire?" Tucker asked from where he sat in the corner, fiddling with his PDA. "Shouldn't you have frozen it instead?"

"I know," Danny moaned. "And why does my Summoning Charm make pillows start tap dancing. How do pillows even tap dance?"

"At least you got it down eventually," Sam reassured him. "Now, your Reductor Curse on the other hand..."

"No, actually I like that one," Danny told her. "I've always been able to make things explode, but making them implode instead..."

He could already imagine Skulker's face next time they fought. He mightn't even have to go ghost to beat him. Just a wave of his wand and then the Fenton Thermos.

"So what do you think tomorrow's meeting is going to be about?" Jazz asked, sitting on a lab stool, reading a book on the history of magical society.

"No clue," Danny replied. "Aguamenti!" This time the goblet filled... with a green bubbling liquid. Danny glared at his wand.

"I swear this thing is defective," he muttered. With a wave of his hand the liquid froze over. With his other hand he conjured a globe of destructive ectoplasm. He knocked the glass against the wall a few times, shook out the frozen substance. It fell into the green globe and was consumed.

"I still think vanishing it would be safer," Sam commented, looking at the next spell in the book.

"Well Hermione isn't here so we can't." Danny turned to Jazz. "I've got no clue as to what the meeting's about. Probably something to do with Harry's new living arrangements."

"Makes sense," Jazz replied. "So what did you think of dinner?"

"At least we don't have to pretend we don't know about the prophecy," said Tucker. "Actually we still do. It's a 'weapon' not a prophecy. "

"Do you think we should tell Harry?" Jazz asked the group. "I mean it's about him..."

"No, we can't tell Harry anything," Sam replied. "Not only would it reveal that we know things that we shouldn't, it could threaten Danny's secret, and there's the fact that Dumbledore wants it secret. I don't know why he does, but if the old wizard with a long beard warns against something then it's common sense to give said warning some weight."

"I supposed," Jazz replied in an unsatisfied tone. No doubt she would be bringing this up again later. "And Danny, be careful. I don't know what Albus is going to propose, but it could be really dangerous."

"Don't worry Jazz. I'll be able to handle it," Danny said with a grin. "After all-" He turned intangible and floated through a counter, "- nobody can touch this!"

Jazz snorted.

"Yeah, Danny can handle whatever they throw at him," Sam spoke up, looking away from Danny and blushing. Danny looked away as well, rubbing at the back of his head, embarrassed. If he was tangible he would be blushing as well. "But please do your best not to get hurt. Tucker and I won't be there to help you."

Jazz and Sam looked at each other and then rolled their eyes.

Everybody continued to work throughout the night.

* * *

Harry stirred under his warm bedclothes as George's loud voice filled the room.

"Mum says get up, your breakfast is in the kitchen and then she needs you in the drawing room. We still need to clean up the doxy corpses and she's found a nest of dead puffskeins under the sofa."

The scarred wizard child groaned. He was a teenager. He would rather sleep through breakfast and skip straight to lunch. But at least it was Mrs. Weasley's cooking.

He better hurry up. Tucker might eat it all before he got down.

Harry up and got changed, letting the grogginess fade away. After getting dressed he made his way downstairs.

Wow and he thought he looked bad in the mornings. Danny Fenton looked like he had risen from the grave rather than a bed.

"Didn't get much sleep last night?" Harry asked him as the zombie boy started to go up the stairs.

"... Sleep... right, I should get some...," the other black haired boy replied.

"Studying all night?" Harry asked.

"Sort of," Danny answered. He _had_ gotten a couple hours of sleep but he had to invest a large amount of energy into a duplicate recently. Hogwarts wasn't that far away for someone who could fly as fast as he could, but it was a pain to navigate the countryside. A couple hours head start was necessary to make it there by one.

Besides it was summer. Who woke up at this hour during the summer?

The halfa staggered up the stairs. Harry shook his head. He didn't envy the muggleborn. Only Hermione might be pleased by the prospect of having to catch up on four years of study in one summer...

Was that what she was doing now? Trying to cover the entire curriculum for the next three years in one summer? She just might be.

Well, he'd worry about it after he had partaken in Mrs. Weasley's excellent cooking.

He sat down at the table, by Hermione, with an open spot on his other side for Ron when he came down. Across the table sat Tucker, Jazz, and Sam, all looking slightly tired but wide awake. Evidently they got more sleep than Danny.

"Did he finally get the charm down?" Hermione was asking Sam. "And did you get the Banishing Charm down? I know the Summoning Charm can be a bit of a challenge for some."

"Yeah, he finally got Aguamenti down," Sam told her, picking up a bit of toast. "I neither of us had... much trouble with the Banishing Charm. I was thinking that we might begin looking into some of the spells for DADA"

"It would be a good idea for you to start soon," Hermione told the goth. "We've got Harry here with us, and Defense Against the Dark Arts is his subject. Maybe we could all learn the Patronus Charm over the summer."

"We'd need a boggart or a dementer..." Harry said, tapping his chin. "It's too bad Phantom killed that one in the drawing room."

"Yeah, but at least we won't have to deal with those Doxies," Ron joined the conversation and sat down on Harry's other side. "Pass the bacon woulda ya?"

"But we did have to clean up that slime," Jazz pointed out. "That had dangerous unknown properties, even if it did smell like ectoplasm."

That caught the attention of all the witches and wizards in the kitchen, from Mrs. Weasley who was bustling at the stove, to Mr. Weasley at the head of one of the tables, to the trio at the table, to the twins walking into the room, to Sirius who was leaning against a wall with a piece of toast in his mouth.

"Ectoplasm?" Sirius asked. "How would you know what that smells like?"

"Our parent's portal gets clogged up with that stuff all the time," Jazz replied. "We have to change the ecto-filter every so often or it would explode. And my parents use it occasionally."

"Oh, you mean degraded ectoplasm," Mrs. Weasley said. "Green goo, am I correct dear?"

"That's most of it," Jazz answered. "But they sometimes use this glowing white stuff-"

Several people dropped things.

"Why didn't I ask them?" Hermione slapped her forehead.

"For the same reason you don't go around asking people if they've got a million galleons lying around and if they wouldn't mind giving them away," Harry replied.

"They've been experimenting with fresh ectoplasm in the basement?" Sirius added. "Damn if I had known that hosting a secret organization in this host could blow it up I would have done it a long time ago."

"A supply of fresh pure ectoplasm...," Mr. Weasley was not a materialistic person in any sense of the word. But selling just a bit would help with his family's finical problems.

"Ummm... am I missing something here?" Jazz looked confused.

"Glowing white ectoplasm is pure un-degraded ectoplasm," Hermione explained. "It doesn't have a nature, unlike the ectoplasm that makes up spirits, and its the most highly charged magical substance known to man. Not much is known about it because its so rare. We aren't sure how deposits are formed. And after they're formed they're usually consumed by spirits or become spirits.

"We do know that it makes for an incredibly powerful ingredient in Potions and a powerful reagent in other works. But we'd really like to research it, but its usually used up elsewhere." Hermione's eyes shone. "If your parents really have a supply of pure ectoplasm then-then-then I could get published early! We could be doing experiments all summer!"

"Uh, you might want to make that its really the stuff you're looking for before you get ahead of yourselves," said Jazz. "We might be using the same word for different things."

"You're right," Harry said, putting a hand on Hermione's shoulder to calm her down. "Nothing in life is this convenient. So what did you guys think of last night's revelations." He changed the subject to avoid getting his hopes up. Well Hermione's hope mostly, there was no guarantee that it could be made into an anti-Voldemort weapon.

"Well, I'm sure the twins hadn't picked up on most of it," Tucker said "So-"

"You're a terrible liar," Sirius said. "I'm guessing that you got your bug working then? Well we'll have to upgrade security in the meeting room then."

"The bug isn't working yet," Tucker shot back. "We're still having trouble detected the boundaries of the field..."

"Oh," Sirius raised an eyebrow. "So you have a different method of eavesdropping?"

"I plead the fifth."

"You're in England now, not America," Hermione reminded him. "The Fifth Amendment to your constitution doesn't apply here."

Tucker muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath about Brits.

"Ignoring the security leak over there," Sam spoke up. "Most of it is stuff anyone who knows about the past war would have been able to guess. The weapon is the only new thing to consider."

"I bet it's some sort of super-wand!" Tucker exclaimed, glad of the change of subject. The glares the twins were giving him for spilling secrets was scary. "And he wants to use it to make himself super-powerful, but the only problem is that Dumbledore's got it."

"That sounds stupid," Sam replied. "It's probably a tome of eldritch lore, written by the mad Arab himself as a companion to his other more famous work. Inside are incantations to tear apart the feeble veil of reality and unleash the terrors beyond!"

"I personally thought it might be Harry," Jazz interjected. "After all who knows what weird voodoo Voldemort could do since he used Harry's blood to come back."

"It doesn't work like that," Hermione replied. "And real voodoo doesn't work anything like muggle movies says it does."

"Alright, that's enough of that talk," the Weasley matriarch interrupted the conversation. Evidently talking about Voldemort using Harry as a weapon was going to far for her tastes. "Everyone needs to hurry up and finish their breakfast, we've got some cleaning to do. We'll be finishing up the drawing room today and then there's the dressing room on the third floor. Fred and George I want you to start dusting the third floor room. Harry, Hermione, and Ron, you'll be with me in the drawing room. Ginny will join us after she gets down and eats breakfast."

"What about them?" Ron asked, pointing to the Fentons and Tucker.

"Sam's got to study," Molly told her youngest son, "and Jazz will be helping her parents."

"What about Danny?" Ron said, desperate to get out of some work. "He's just sleeping."

"Don't worry about it," Sam said with a roll of her eyes. "He'll be plenty busy later."

* * *

AN:Sorry it's so short, writing this chapter was like pulling teeth. I don't know why. Maybe its because of the brain dead-ness at the end of the last, or the speed I wrote a chapter for my other story.

Meh, it sets up the points I wanted it too.

Don't forget to review.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own either Danny Phantom or Harry Potter.

* * *

The English countryside passed below him, the green fields and gentle hills of the island nation turning into a green blur as the spirit boy sped alongside the railway. It had taken Danny Phantom forever to find the route that the Hogwarts express took to and from Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Finding the rail route had been particularly bad on that day; he eventually gave up and had to go to the platform itself.

He was flying as fast as he felt was reasonable. The spirit boy wasn't about to tire himself out by blazing to the meeting at top speed. Considering his problems with power lately, he needed to start practicing economical use of energy.

He could see the tallest towers off in the distance, rising out of a see of leafy green that was the Forbidden Forest. Danny checked his watch. It was twelve-fifty. He had a bit of time. He cut his speed and turned his ghostly tail back into a pair of legs.

It was a typical English day, that is to say grey and dreary. Had Danny been in human form he would have been sweating from the summer heat. As it was the temperature caused him no discomfort. Even if it had been hot enough to bother him, the ghost boy could have always simply used his cryokinesis to cool the air around him.

He pulled up, gaining altitude and adjusting his bearing so that he was headed directly towards the castle. Blue cold mist left his mouth as his core ramped up energy and ectoplasm production, impure ectoplasm unique to him, as it 'tasted' the power of the spirits bound within Hogwart's walls.

A tingle passed all over his skin as he passed through the wards, as if he had narrowly missed being struck by lightning or a speeding train. The wards were immensely powerful. If they hadn't let him pass...

Well, this layer would simply stop him from getting any closer to the castle. Other layers would reduce him to a smear of ectoplasm as easily as a semi would squash a fly on its windshield.

Well it was a good thing that Dumbledore had made it so the wards would let him past. Danny wondered how they would've reacted to his human form trying to get into the school if the headmaster hadn't done that. He would have to experiment with that concept at some point.

The halfa passed over the forest and then over Hagrid's hut. He dipped low and landed on the grounds in front of the main gates. Danny calmly waited.

A moment later a shade sped out of the castle. The grey, translucent figure was dressed in fine robes covered in ghostly blood.

"A fine day to you good spirit," spoke the Bloody Baron in his deep spectral tones.

"Uh, back at you!" Danny replied.

"Dumbledore is waiting for you. Follow, I will show you the way." The dead nobleman turned around and floated back towards the castle proper. Danny followed.

"I take it your trip was a pleasant one?" Inquired the shade as he went through the main door.

"Not really," Danny replied, turning intangible to pass through the gates. "It was a pain to find the railway this time. I had to go to London and navigate from there."

"I, see" said the baron, exchanging a nod with Nearly-Headless Nick. "I hope you find it easier on subsequent trips."

"Me too. So...ahhh... how's the renovations coming along to the Slytherin seventh year's rooms?" Danny asked.

"It is proceeding nicely," the Bloody Baron answered in a haunting voice. "The house-elves are confident that they will have everything done at least a week before the start of term."

"That's good," Danny responded, searching for more topics to make small talk about as they ghosted upwards through several floors. "Has there been any trouble at the castle?"

"Only the usual politics, squabbles, and mischief " replied the voice that sounded like it hung around graveyards and narrated the sins of those buried within. "Some of the centaurs seem to be getting edgy, but it is only to be expected in troubled times such as these."

"Good to hear," said Danny. The two ghosts arrived at the gargoyle that marked the entrance to Headmaster's office.

"Jaffa cakes," the bloodstained baron told the silent statue. The gargoyle stepped aside.

"I trust you've been inside before?" The baron inquired.

"Yeah, I know the drill," Danny answered. "Thanks."

"You are welcome spirit-child," the baron responded with a nod of his head.

"Hey! I'm not a kid!"

The baron gave him a very even look.

"If what I have heard is correct, you are no more than a few years of age," the shade said. "And your form is like that of the students that we shelter in these halls every year."

"Fine," muttered the halfa, looking away. "Bye."

"Farewell, spirit-child." The Bloody Baron left with what might have been a small smile on his face.

Danny flew up the spiral steps. The staircase turned below him. In no time at all he reached the office door and knocked.

* * *

Plans, plots, ideas, schemes, and so much more whirred through the mind of Albus Dumbledore. His brilliant mind dissected each item, mercilessly probing for weaknesses, for flaws, for imperfections. But never did he reject the methods. Empires would fall, regimes would change, and the world itself would burn.

People became no more than pawns, to be ruthlessly used and discarded. He would use his great knowledge of the human mind and his ability to read people to manipulate them. They would be his puppets, dancing to his bidding as he worked to his greater goal.

At the center of his web of conspiracy was the Fentons. Yes they were key. It was only because of them that his goal could be accomplished.

Yes, Albus Dumbledore would be getting a pair of thick woolen socks for Christmas. And the Fentons would be the ones to give them to him.

He was shaken out of his reverie by a knocking at his door.

"Yes, come in," he told his visitor, most likely Phantom. His guess was proved correct when there was a brief sparking and a yelp of pain when the specter attempted to intangibly pass through the door. "You forgot about the wards again I see."

The door creaked opened and the glowing boy floated in.

"Lemon drop?"

"No thanks," the halfa said, floating over to the front of the headmaster's desk and reclining in the air above the chair provided for guest. Dumbledore twitched his finger and the chair floated up, forcing the ghost boy to sit up straight in midair.

"Eh! Oh." Danny sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "So, anyway, what did you need me for?"

"As you may have guessed, this is about Harry Potter's new living arrangements," Dumbledore said. "I would like you to stay at Grimmauld Place as often as you can."

"Sure, but can I ask why? Is it just to have a bit of extra security there?"

Dumbledore said nothing for a moment. He simply regarded the being before him over his half moon spectacles.

The elderly headmaster was not one to trust easily. No, that wasn't exactly true. He trusted in the best of people all the time, even those who gave him every reason not to. But he was much more reluctant to trust them with other things. Some of that behavior was normal for old and powerful wizards; they carried secrets of great power because they were some of the few who could be counted on to know the appropriate time to use them. And the best wizards knew better than to match power against power; they knew to match wisdom against strength instead.

Dumbledore normally would never trust someone else with his motivations, let alone a being he had known for such a short time as Phantom. However, Phantom wasn't human. He was a spirit, a being similar but different from a human. From what Dumbledore had figured out about his nature thus far the spirit was definitely on the side of the Light. And he was also rather secretive as well.

And, a little voice inside his head said, it would increase the spirit's loyalty towards himself and the Order.

The headmaster squashed that inner voice.

There was something else as well, something from a part so deep within him that it could never be an inner voice, urging him to tell Danny Phantom as well. It was the part of the old man that wanted to confide in someone. Albus regularly talked to Snape; the Potion Master was the one who he told the most. But telling secrets to a broken man like Severus Snape wasn't exactly confiding.

Albus Dumbledore was old and becoming more and more weary. It was only a little bit of information and telling the boy would make him feel so much better.

The old man sighed.

"That is part of it," the silver bearded wizard told the being composed of ectoplasm. "But I'm more concerned about Harry's mental health than his physical well-being at the moment."

"Huh?"

"You see," Albus began, "I fear the boy is very unstable at the moment. He had seen someone who could be called a friend killed right in front of his eyes at the end of the last term, had to witness the rebirth of Lord Voldemort, and will undoubtedly have to deal with a disbelieving student populace and Ministry persecution. He will have received little healing from his relatives-"

"About that," Danny interjected. Dumbledore cut him off.

"If you are going to ask why I left him at the Dursleys instead of moving him to the Burrow or Grimuald place this summer-"

"Actually, why did you leave him there at all? I know the protective magicks are pretty strong, but keeping him with people who hate him-"

"It was not intended to be permanent," Albus answered. "Or at least permanent and full time. Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, was supposed to have taken care of the boy for extended periods of time. Harry's relations would have only had to take care of Harry full-time as an infant. But then there was the whole fiasco with Peter and Harry had already been placed in Privet Drive. It seemed prudent to simply leave him there. I admit my own paranoia played a part in the decision to leave him there; a trusted companion had betrayed us, even if it was not the companion I thought it was, and I did not know if there was anyone to whom I could entrust Harry."

"Oh," Danny was sitting attentively now, hands folded in his lap. The fact that the floating chair he was sitting in was slightly off kilter ruined the image of an attentive student.

"But, as I was saying earlier, I am worried about Harry's mental health," Dumbledore continued. "I feel he could use a new friendly face around. And someone he knows he can count on for protection, even if only on an unconscious level."

"So you want me to reassure him that he's safe?" Danny asked, looking mildly confused.

"No, I don't want you to say anything of the sort," Dumbledore answered. "He is rapidly becoming more independent and any overt effort to protect him will likely provoke him. It will be bad enough that I will have to avoid him for the time being-"

"Why?"

Dumbledore sighed and stood up. He clasped his hands behind his back and looked out of one of the office windows to survey the castle grounds.

"That is one thing I cannot tell you, though if some of my fears come to pass you may find out anyway." The old man's eyes peered beyond the sight before him, his mind going to places far away. "I'm afraid I must ask you for more information on one of your powers. I will swear any oath you feel is necessary-"

"Don't worry about it," Danny told the wizard. "Which power?"

Dumbledore had enough self control not to gape at the response. Even so he still took a moment to compose himself before turning back around.

"You offer up such information freely? Information that could be used to bind or seal you?"

"I'm working with two, and don't tell them I said this, of the best ghost hunters in the world, who've been after me for years," Phantom said to Dumbledore. "If I'm going to trust them with everything they'll learn from working with me, why not you as well?"

"I see," Albus smiled a small smile. "In that case, the power I require more information on is your overshadowing ability. I need to know how well you can access someone's mind with that ability."

"About the most I can do is invade someone's dreams," Danny told the headmaster. "I don't know why that works-"

"And that's all I needed to know," replied the old man. "If, for some reason, you happen to observe Harry dreaming, I would like you to enter that dream, and if possible stop it."

"Why? Don't want him having bad dreams?"

"No," the headmaster said, sitting back down. "It is the... possible origin of the dreams that worries me."

"Some sort of magic dream?"

"Something like that," Albus responded. "Now-"

There was a loud and urgent knocking on his office door. The headmaster frowned. He was scheduled to meet with no one else today. The most likely reason for an interruption was some sort of emergency.

"Yes, come on in," the silver haired old man wandlessly unlocked the door for the newcomer. It was Snape, sweating and out of breath, as if he had run all the way from the Great Hall. Which he may have done.

"Headmaster-" the greasy Potion master said between breaths. "Urgent news."

"Take a moment to catch your breath," the elderly headmaster told his employee. "Is it too confidential for Phantom to hear. Yes or no."

Snape shook his head while slowing his breathing.

"No, it's the Dark Lord's gifts to the giants. I managed to find out the locations earlier and asked another member of the Order to set up some covert detection spells. They've been tripped!" Snape said hurriedly still catching his breath. "No doubt they've noticed the spells by now, but if we hurry we can strike them without revealing our source of information!"

"Good news for once!" Dumbledore said brightly. "How many locations?"

"Three," answered the spy.

"Do you know how well guarded they are?" The headmaster was already planning the operation.

"There's nobody important at two of the spots, just some groups of talent-less wizards and witches that couldn't become Death Eaters. At the other spot there's more of them, along with a couple of golems and some constructs."

"Expecto Patronum!" Albus Dumbledore's wand shone brightly as he spoke the incantation. A number of silver phoenixes burst into silvery being. They all sped out of the room, looking like silver comets.

"They should fetch all the members of the Order who can come," Albus informed the room. "Phantom, do you think you could handle the third storage area? Lupin and possibly Sirius will back you up."

Danny took a deep breath and quickly gauged how much energy he had left. He decided he didn't want to risk it with the energy he had at the moment.

"Tell them to meet me at headquarters," Danny replied.

"Why not here?" Snape asked the spirit.

"I want to see if the Fenton's will let me borrow a couple of things," the ghost told the dark haired spellcaster.

"Very well," Dumbledore said. "Just take care not to tarry too long. We will need to move fast to take advantage of this opportunity."

Danny Phantom nodded. He turned intangible and attempted to go through the floor. Blue sparks jumped and the incorporeal boy shouted in pain.

"Right," the halfa said sheepishly, avoiding Dumbledore's amused look and Snape's exasperated one. "I forgot about the wards again."

* * *

Harry looked at the twisted family tree. He read the names of the dark families, the burn marks from Mrs. Black disowning members, and the links that connected most of the pure-blood families.

He wondered if the reason Voldemort had so much support was not his ideology, but rather a result of family sticking together. How many of his supporters joined because they felt he was the best hope for wizarding Britain and how many joined to watch over their younger cousin?

It didn't really matter in the end. They all were the enemy that had to be fought.

But it was something to think about.

"Are the Potters on here?" Harry asked his godfather standing next to him.

"No," Sirius told his godson. "Considering they took me in my dear old mother would have gotten rid of them right away."

"Oh," Harry felt a be dejected at that. He wouldn't have minded finding out more about his relatives. "Well, I suppose the family name isn't _blackened _this way."

"You had to reach too far for that one," Sirius told Harry. "And what's with all the jokes lately?"

"I discovered that laughter is the best way to deal my arch-nemesis."

"Laughter is the best way to deal with Voldemort?"

"I said arch-nemesis," Harry replied with a glare. "My arch-nemesis is the universe. Voldemort's just a lackey."

Sirius snorted.

"I guess that's one way of looking at it," the last Black responded. "Hmmm... even stuck in here I could do a lot more to fight the universe than I can currently do to hurt Voldemort."

"Lunch," Mrs. Weasley's voice sounded behind the two. They turned to see the red haired matriarch carrying a tray of sandwiches and cake. Two more trays hovered behind her, most likely as part of her continuing competition with Tucker's appetite. Harry licked his lips. He did feel rather hungry...

And then a silver phoenix patronus streaked into the room, startling the red haired woman, and sending sandwiches flying.

"Nooooo!" Harry whipped out his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

All the flying food was caught in his Levitation Charm. As was Mrs. Weasley.

"Good catch Harry," she praised him, while waving her arms about to stop from turning upside down in midair. "But do you think you could let me down now?"

While Harry complied the phoenix spoke to Sirius.

"We have discovered the locations where Voldemort is keeping his gifts to the giants," the magical messenger told the canine animagus. "Lupin and Phantom will be assaulting the most heavily guarded one. If you wish to accompany them they will be meeting here before they leave."

"Yeesss!" Sirius cheered. "I get to leave the house and kick some arse! It's Christmas come early!"

"Do you think they'll let me come?" Harry asked, as he helped Mrs. Weasley put the sandwiches back on the trays.

"Absolutely not!" Molly snapped. "You are nowhere-"

"Yeah, yeah, I guess it was a foolish hope," Harry sighed. "Still..."

"Don't worry," Sirius reassured his godson. "If I see any Malfoys out there, I'll kick their arse for you."

"Awww," Harry replied. "You always give the best gifts."

"-And how do you even know about those!" Harry, Sirius, Sam, Tucker, Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, and Molly all turned their heads to look out into the hallway where they could hear Maddie Fenton shouting.

"Your ecto-shields never covered the top left corner of the lab," this time it was Phantom's voice, sounding somewhere between amused and panicked. "Hey, not in the house!"

There was the whine of an energy weapon charging and then the sizzling sound of the bolt being unleashed.

"Drop that shield and take the hits like a ghost!"

"Never crazy woman!" Phantom sped into the room that everyone had been cleaning. Maddie was right behind him, brandishing some sort of shiny metallic gun.

"Maddie, what all this about!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at her fellow red head. "And why are you firing those things outside the lab!"

"Just disciplining a naughty piece of ectoplasmic waste," Maddie said casually. Purple light was spilling out of the barrel of the gun. Harry, Tucker, Sam, Ron, and Hermione all backed away.

"Can you please put that down," Harry asked. "I like my current look; only one scar. Another would be just tacky."

"Oh, this?" Maddie waved the gun. "Don't worry about it. I'll only be using it on this thing here." She pointed the gun at Phantom.

"Do you mind? I only wanted to see if you've made any modifications to the Ghost Gauntlets that deal with magic." Phantom raised a small green shield in front of him.

"And why do you need that?" Maddie demanded of the spirit.

"I just got a mission," the ghost boy informed her.

"And I'm coming with," Sirius chimed in. "So do you have anything for us?"

"My name isn't Q," Maddie shot back. "No, I don't have anything that you can't already do yourself. And as for you!" She pointed the gun at Phantom. "You aren't getting your filthy paws on any of our technology."

"You don't have anything do you?" Phantom said.

"That's beside the point," Maddie fumed.

"You just didn't want to have to say that," Phantom seemed gleeful at the prospect.

"Do you want to spend a month in the Thermos?"

"No way. Come on Sirius, let's go downstairs and wait for Lupin and that portkey." Phantom turned intangible and dived through the floor. Sirius grinned and apparated after him.

"Darn ghosts," Maddie muttered. She turned around and prepared to leave. But before she did so Hermione spoke up.

"Mrs. Fenton!" The bushy haired girl called out. "I need to ask you a few questions!"

"Of course dear," the ghost hunting woman replied, turning back to face the girl. "What do you need to know?"

"During breakfast Jazz mentioned something about how you used ectoplasm in your inventions. She mentioned something about you using two different types-"

"Oh yeah. We've got two different types," Maddie explained. "One type, the low energy stable type, we harvest from areas of ghostly activity and the other, high energy and unstable ectoplasm, we get from the Ghost Zone, the atmosphere, and in small quantities, we sometimes synthesize it."

"Is the first type generally green?" Hermione asked the ghost hunter, cautious hope contained within her voice. "And the second type generally glowing white?"

"Why yes-"

"And you're sure that it's ectoplasm, the same thing that Phantom is made of and uses. "

"Yes-"

Hermione began to take rapid small breaths.

Harry rubbed his hands together gleefully.

Everyone else simply gaped.

Maddie tilted her head quizzically.

"Did I miss something?"

* * *

"Alright," Danny Phantom said to Remus Lupin. He, Lupin, and Sirius were gathered in the entryway to Grimmauld Place. "Where's the bang up going to happen?"

"It's in France, near the Aisine river," Lupin informed the specter and fugitive. "Dumbledore made a portkey for you Phantom. Do you know what the term blitzkrieg means?"

"Sort of," Danny answered. He paid some attention in history class after all. From what he could recall it was German for some sort for a hard and fast attack.

"Well that's the strategy Snape advised," Lupin informed the ghost boy. "They're using an old abandoned farm. It's an area that's surrounded by muggle weapons that didn't work but are still dangerous. They've laid down the usual anti-muggle charms, but they didn't need to change any of the records."

"Do we have to worry about any the duds while we're there?" Danny asked Lupin.

"Is that what they're called? No, Voldemort's forces cleared out all the ones near the farmhouse and barn. This portkey should take us into the radius of safety."

"What will we being doing?" Sirius asked. "And what are the other two groups doing?"

"One group is being led by Moody," Lupin informed his friend. "Their target is not as heavily guarded, so a small number of wizards should suffice. Aside from destroying the gifts, they are supposed to hold the area long enough to investigate to see what else they can learn. Same goes for Shacklebolt's group."

"And," the werewolf continued, "you and I will be supporting Phantom. Mainly counterspell operations and any environmental alterations that Phantom requests. Dumbledore also said that we shouldn't need a formal chain of command, but I think we should follow Phantom's lead."

"Makes sense," Sirius commented. He turned to Danny. "You're front line. Just tell us what you need and we'll do our best to do it."

"Alright," Danny replied. "I'm ready to go when you are."

"Good," Lupin said. He pulled out a tiny shield emblazoned with the four Hogwarts house emblems. "This has been enchanted to work as a portkey, but its main function is setting up a sort of temporary forward base. If anyone gets wounded, try and retreat where we placed it."

Sirius and Phantom both chimed in their comprehension.

"Alright, everyone put their hand on the shield." The spirit and spellcaster did so.

There was a tugging sensation behind their navels and then they were off.

* * *

Danny could feel the spells clashing as they arrived. The battle was so furious that he didn't even need to focus on his core to sense the magic. It lasted only a moment and then it was over. Evidently the shield Dumbledore had given Lupin had won.

The halfa looked around. Snape's information had been accurate. The portkey had taken them to a farm. It was definitely abandoned; the fields were overgrown with a variety of plants, ranging from wild wheat to green weeds. The farmhouse itself was burned and scarred. The roof of the white two story house had huge holes in it, with shattered blackened beams sticking out like broken bones.

A couple of lonely tombstones were located a little ways away from the house. Overgrown green grass covered them, vines were creeping upwards covering the inscriptions, and it was hard to see them in the un-kept yard. Craters littered the whole area, as far as Danny could see.

Danny could feel his ghost sense stir, but it didn't activate. That happened in certain areas that had a lot of ghostly potential, or where a lot of non-sentient ghosts lived. Danny pushed it out of his mind. It wasn't time to deal with it now.

"They should know we're here any second now," Lupin told Phantom. "Sirius and I will take positions covered by the tall grass. The gifts should be in the barn. The wizards will be in the house."

"Alright, blitzkrieg, hit them quick and hard," Danny said. "I'm on it!"

He rocketed away, his legs turning into a ghostly tail. He accelerated madly, preparing to smash through the wall and whatever lay behind. The sea of overgrown plants rippled in his wake.

He ran face first straight into a earthy fist. His tail snapped back into a pair of legs and his body continued in its original trajectory. The halfa was flipped over in mid air and sent flying back the way he came.

"Ouch," Danny rubbed his jaw. "Did anyone get the number of that truck I hit?"

He looked over towards what hit him. A brown figure was rising from the field, a figure made of some sort of light brown runny earth. It was made in some crude likeness of a man. But its limbs were too elongated, arms were too long and thin, and the legs didn't look like they could support the body. It had no neck, only a column on top of another mass.

Bits of earth were constantly falling off, like the creature was made of mud. And while it did look wet, it was obviously not made of mud. Danny looked at its feet and saw earth flowing up into its feet.

Overall the impression that the creature was a spaghetti legged brown clay sculpture of a man. Danny guessed that it was supposed to be one of the golems.

"You want to play that way, huh?" Danny thrust forth a fist and an emerald beam of ectoplamsic energy flew forth. Green light shone over the golem's chest before the beam burst through. The golem staggered as most of its chest was splattered over the tall grass behind it.

"How did you like that?" Danny taunted, getting back up.

There was a loud slurping sound and more earth was sucked up. Danny groaned as the hole repaired itself.

There was a commotion from the barn. More crude man-like beings rushed out. These were made from what looked like small grey bricks. Danny guessed that they were the constructs.

Wait, weren't there supposed to be multiple golems?

As if to answer his question two more spaghetti like arms erupted from the earth. They grabbed the ghost boy's shoulders and yanked Danny backwards. Danny turned intangible on instinct, slipping away from the surprise attack.

The halfa flew upward and began tangible once more. He brought both hands downward and unleashed a hammer of green energy on the golem rising from the earth. Most of the being was splattered all over the sea of plants with a loud boom.

Danny thought he heard chanting coming from the house.

"Guys, I think they're casting a spell in the house!" The spirit shouted to the two mages.

"We'll have to disrupt it before they build up too much momentum," Lupin said to Sirius, using a communication spell to conceal his position in the tall grass.

"I know, I know Moody," Sirius replied from somewhere else. "On the count of three then."

"One, two, three. Finite incantatem!" They cast the all purpose counterspell in unison. Invisible forces warred with each other as Remus and Sirius attacked the fabric of the forming spell. Cries of pain sounded from the house as the backlash found the wanna-be dark wizards.

Meanwhile the halfa was forced to raise a translucent green dome to protect himself from a volley of earth bullets that the first golem was shooting out of the ends of its arm. They looked soft, but Danny could feel his shield buckle under the assault. He turned his head around to check on the status of the other golem.

It was reforming rapidly. Soon it would be whole once more.

Danny looked at the stone constructs. They were currently rushing towards him, covered by the golem.

Danny sighed. This was going to hurt.

He quit supplying energy to the shield. His shield was a curious thing. When he quit supplying energy the shield didn't fade, it simply quit existing. No time passed between the disappearance of the shield and the energy cutoff. It was an interesting factoid that had nothing to do with what happened next.

Danny turned around, and braced himself against the hail of earth bullets. It was like being pelted by a hail of high speed softballs that made splat sounds when hitting something. He braced himself to avoid falling over and then called upon his cryogensis and cryokineis.

Gritting his teeth in pain Danny raise his hands, spread his fingers, and let loose a blue blast as wide as himself. The cold energy engulfed the second golem. Ice cracked and spread, covering and consuming the earthy being. What looked like a ice sculpture was left in its place.

Danny turned intangible and slipped into the ground. He let out a sigh of relief as he escaped the pain. The ghost boy flew through the earth and popped up invisible behind the golem.

Right as he turned tangible again the golem turned around, scooping up a giant handful of earth and somehow hardening it. The golem hurled the projectile at the ghost boy. Danny ducked on instinct, the wind from the boulder's passage ruffling his hair.

Evidently the golem was tied to the sensor spells. Danny filed that away for future reference. He brought his hands up again, once more calling upon his cold power.

Another blue blast flew forth. This time one of the stone constructs hurled itself into the way. It was obviously too much for the creation. Giant cracks spread through the being, one of the arms crumbled, and a leg fell off in mid flight. But it was still able to interpose itself between the golem and the ice blast.

The golem quickly retreated back into the ground. The other three stone beings converged on Danny. He smirked. The golems were troublesome, but these constructs on the other hand...

Three quick green blasts shattered the constructs. Unlike the golem they didn't reform. Now he only had to deal with that last golem. Where was it going to pop up...

There was a yelp from in the tall grass and movement. The golem had sprung out of the earth and attempted to attack Sirius. But the fugitive wizard rolled out of the way and, with a trick he had learned from James, transfigured the earth that made up the being into stone.

Sirius smirked at his handiwork for a second. The smirk fell off his face when he noticed the cracks forming in the new statue. He scrambled away as earth flowed into small imperfections in the stone and shrugging off the transfigured material.

Before it could get free another blue blast engulfed it. The stone statue turned into an ice statue and quit moving.

"Nice save," Sirius called out to the spirit.

"Thanks. Why don't you two make sure it's safe to blow up those gifts while I knock out the guys in the house?" Danny suggested.

"Alright," Mr. Black replied to Phantom. He started towards the house. Lupin stood up somewhere nearby and walked over to the barn.

Phantom turned intangible and tried to fly into the house. There was a brief flash of pain and he felt something resist him. Red rings appeared in midair where he was trying to press forward. Evidently the house was protected.

Danny pushed against the spells protecting the place for a moment. He could feel them giving in. Green energy surrounded his fist and he punched the barrier. Red and green rings radiated from the point of impact. The boy's fist passed through the barrier. There was the sound of breaking glass and Danny felt the resistance fade.

The ghostly glowing youth entered the house and sniffed the air. Why did the place smell of smoke?

He dove through the walls and floors coming to a stop over a group of unconscious black robed figures. None of them looked over twenty-five years of age. It was made up of both genders and every member seemed to be underfed.

Evidently disrupting the spell had already knocked them out. But what was burning?

Danny dove into the basement. He looked at the rotten wooden walls and the ground behind them. There were red and black stains scattered all over the walls. But the ghost boy didn't care about that at the moment.

He did care about the green flames that were eating up the basement. Evidently breaking the wards had adverse effects.

Duh.

The halfa flew back up to the unconscious group. He threw them into a giant pile (taking care not to touch the witches in inappropriate places). Danny created another shield, this time a sphere, but instead of covering himself with it, he placed it around the knocked out foes.

A green light filled the room as Danny blasted a hole in the upper floors. Effortlessly the ghost boy flew up, taking group with him.

He dropped the group off by the barn, turning to look back at the house. A small wisp of black smoke was starting to rise up from the house. He'd have to try and use his ice powers to deal with the fire later.

Lupin and Sirius exited the barn a moment later.

"You can blast away at anytime- these the people old Voldie had guarding the place?" Sirius asked, looking at the group. "Oh, wow, these poor buggers are young."

"Poor buggers?" Danny asked about Sirius's phrase.

"Yeah," Sirius said looking over the wanna-be dark practitioners. "Voldemort doesn't take failure well. How long do you think they'll be out Moony?"

"An hour or so," Lupin answered. "After we destroy the gifts here, we should probably drop them off a couple miles away. Give them some time to get away from Voldemort."

"That's a good idea," Sirius said. "Alright, we'll get the portkey ready. Drop them off somewhere."

"Okay," responded Danny. "Just let me try and deal with the fire in the house."

The end result of using ice power to deal with the magical fire was a mockery of reason. He froze the flames themselves. One of his eyebrows ended up twitching. The world didn't work like that!

He then grabbed the group again and flew off. He found a clearing in some woods a little ways away from the town and dropped them off. Danny looked them over quickly to make sure there were no obvious injuries or anything.

When he returned to the farm, Lupin and Sirius were standing around the miniature shield placed in the bottom of a random crater.

"Well that was interesting," Lupin said, folding up a piece of paper. "I really have to inform the Order about what we found here."

"We're ready to leave whenever," Sirius told the ghost boy. "Hurry up and blow it up."

"Fine," Danny rolled his eyes. "Geez, the things I do."

The boy took a deep breath. He raised his arms above his head and began to gather his energy. Travelling back to Grimmauld Place by simply dispelling his duplicate had been a good idea. Making it so that the duplicate going on the mission was the 'original' was also a good idea. Even though the fight had been pretty easy, it was nice to have a larger reserve to draw upon.

A large ball of green energy gathered in his hands, growing more wild as it grew in size. Danny gritted his teeth as he struggled to keep the power contained. Eventually it settled down into a sphere.

"And this is my favorite part of the job!" He threw the ball at the barn. It clipped the empty door-frame, destroying a corner. There was a loud crashing sound and then the barn exploded. A pillar of green energy blasted off the broken roof with a roar. A wave of hot wind swept the walls away as the roof disintegrated above.

"Time to go!" Danny put his hand on the portkey. Sirius and Lupin followed suit. They vanished right before the hot wind reached them.

* * *

AN: Sorry about the short chapters lately.

I'll be going over the earlier chapters in a bit and correcting typos later.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Harry Potter.

AN: I'm sorry, it's another short chapter.

* * *

It was the greatest challenge that Harry had undertaken. A challenge so immense that, to Harry, it rivaled the Twelve Labors of the great Greek hero, Hercules himself. An impossible task that would take all of his willpower to achieve. Harry wasn't sure if he could do it, wasn't sure if the task would break him beyond repair. But he was determined to go through with it anyway.

He would _politely _ask Professor _Snape _for Occlumency lessons.

Harry shuddered just thinking about it.

"Harry, why are you reading up on Ambient Sound Charms?" Hermione asked, looking over his shoulder to see what he was reading. "And why Ominous Chanting versions?"

"Just trying to get some appropriate background music," Harry told her. Let's see, Ominous Hebrew Chanting, Ominous Latin Chanting, Ominous Russian Chanting, German Chanting...

Hermione gave him a strange look.

"Harry, are you okay?" She asked the Boy-Who-Was-Reading.

"Course, why do you ask?" Harry responded, not looking up from his book.

"You seem to be a bit different lately..." She began.

"I've just decided to have a better outlook on life," Harry replied. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine, really."

"If you say so." Hermione didn't look convinced.

"Well I do say so. Now can you help me get one of these charms down? I'm going to be asking Professor Snape for lessons in a bit."

"Suddenly your reading material makes sense."

* * *

Wizards and witches slowly filed into the Order of the Phoenix's meeting room at Grimmauld Place. Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, and Danny Phantom were already waiting inside for them. Albus sat at the head of the meeting table, Phantom idly floated overhead (glad that he was the original for once, there would be less negative side effects to staying in the room warded with his own power), Snape sat at the end of the table opposite from Dumbledore, Lupin sat in one of the seats on the right side of the table, and Sirius leaned up against a wall.

The canine shapeshifter had a wild grin on his face. He was also whistling a jaunty tune and tapping his foot.

"Why are you so happy?" Danny asked the reluctant Black heir as more members filed into the room.

"First chance to get out of the house and see some action in a long while," Sirius replied. "It feels good."

"I guess I get that," the halfa returned.

"And I suppose some men never lose their bloodlust," Snape spoke up. "Although it is somewhat reassuring that it's directed towards a mutual foe, I'm also worried that it might drift towards... individuals who are valuable allies. I do hope we have some way of muzzling and leashing the mutt when that time comes."

"Why you!" Sirius reached for his wand, but stopped himself before he could draw it.

"You know, I probably should have asked about this before," Phantom began, "but what's with you two?"

"He tried to feed me to Lupin during a full moon," Snape told the spirit. "A mere youthful indiscretion, I'm sure." He said that last part while shooting Dumbledore a dark look.

"Severus, we've been over this many times," the elderly wizard told his friend.

"I'm merely-"

"You tried to get Remus to eat Mr. Snape?" Phantom said. "Dude, that's... well, just sort of evil."

"In my defense, it was a bit of a complicated situation," Sirius replied. "But that doesn't really excuse what I did to Remus... or Snivellous for that matter."

"Can we please drop this subject," Dumbledore cut in as the last of the Order members who would be attending the debriefing filed in. "We need to move on to other subjects soon."

Although the affirmations were reluctant, Dumbledore was still pleased to hear them. Maybe there was still some hope for this terrible feud after all.

Everyone was silent for another half minute while they waited for stragglers. Then Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"This is just a quick debriefing," the silver bearded wizard said to the room. "The two team leaders and Remus will inform everybody of what they found at each of the locations where Voldemort was storing his gifts for the giants. Alastor, would you start?"

The scarred, odd eyed retired Auror stood up from his seat on the left side of the long table.

"Nothing much," Moody told the assembled members. "There were five wizards guarding them, talent-less scum with no official ranking within Voldemort's organization, and some minor wards around an old cottage in the moors. We apparated to a point just outside the wards, bulled our way through the defenses, and stunned all five before they could even draw their wands. The gifts consisted of one goblin made giant sized gauntlet, an old Celtic grail, and some jewelry enchanted to shine. We quickly investigated the premises for anything else of note, but did not find anything. We destroyed the gifts and then departed."

"Thank you Alastor," Dumbledore said. "Shacklebolt, what happened with your team?"

"It was an operation similar to Moody's," the dark skinned Auror answered. "Two weak wizards and a witch camping out near an old shed. There were no wards so we could apparate directly into their midst. We were also able to stun them before they could put up any resistance. The shed contained a large enchanted mirror, a pocket mirror for a giant. We weren't able to determine the nature of the enchantment before we left. We also did not discover anything of note in the area."

"Thank you Shacklebolt," Dumbledore inclined his head to the man. "And finally, Remus, what happened with you, Sirius, and Phantom?"

The werewolf cleared his throat and stood up.

"Phantom, may I tell the others about the powers you displayed during the fight?" He asked the spirit floating above the table.

"Yes," Danny replied, rolling his glowing green eyes. "Sheesh, why are you all like that? If I want something kept a secret I'll tell you."

"Sorry," Remus apologized. "But it's the standard protocol for dealing with spirits. Most of them don't like information about their abilities leaking out to anyone, the temptation to seal them and use their power can be very strong for some wizards."

"Fine, fine fine," Danny said. "But I'm pretty public with my powers. It's not my fault none of you watch the regular news, you'd already know a lot if you did so."

"And luckily Voldemort and his supporters don't either," Dumbledore cut in, "they consider muggle new sources to be below them, and even if they didn't, I suspect that they may be somewhat loath to use an American new source. But enough about that, can we continue with the debriefing?"

"Yes, sorry." Remus turned back to the table. "There were between seven and twelve witches and wizards on the premises, along with four crude stone constructs, and two earth golems. The location itself was by the Asine river in France, littered with 'duds' as Phantom called them, unexploded muggle weaponry. We used a portkey to appear within their wards, wherein we had Phantom attempt to rush the barn where the gifts were contained. He was intercepted by one of the golem. He engaged it and we discovered that it was a new model that had the ability to regenerate using the soil. Phantom was set upon by the other golem and the constructs while the wizards attempted to cast some sort of spell, a ritual or a longspell. Sirius and I disrupted the spell, the blacklash knocking out the spellcasters. Phantom managed to overcome the golems' regenerative ability by freezing them and was able to dispatch the constructs with no difficulty."

"Phantom broke the wards protecting the farmhouse," Lupin continued, "and retrieved the humans within. Sirius and I investigated the barn. Within we found an enchanted club and something infinitely more interesting. " The werewolf reached into his robes and took out a sheet of paper. "There was a silver, gold, and mercury circle set into the ground and obviously active. I managed to quickly trace it before having Phantom destroy the barn."

He place the paper in front of Dumbledore. Danny took a peek.

It looked like arcane gibberish to him, but then again so did some of the second year material he was supposed be learning did as well. It was a series of three cocentric circles, with a ring of differing strange scripts in-between each circle. The out circle was labeled g, probably the gold, the middle s, and the center m.

"So what's it supposed to do?" The spirit asked the schoolmaster.

"I don't know," the old wizard replied in a curious tone. "The inner script is some form of ancient Etruscan, the middle is cuneiform, and the outer one is Akkadian. Whomever created this circle certainly has done their best to make it difficult to discern its function. This will take quite some time to translate. Severus, do you have any idea as to its function?"

"Unfortunately I do not," the double agent answered. "Whatever the Dark Lord is up to with this, he is playing this very close to the chest."

"Very well," Dumbledore addressed the room at large. "I must ask all of you to be on the lookout for similar items from here on out. It appears our foe has another plan in the works."

"Great," Danny groaned. "We've got to stop him from getting the prophecy, recruiting Dark creatures, his blackmail and intimidation schemes, reaching out to old allies, and now whatever he's up to with this?"

"Do not get too concerned," said Albus. He kept the worry out of his own voice. Truth be told the new development and the new possible front to the war was depressing news, but he couldn't let it show on his face or his tone. He needed to keep the Order's morale up. " Voldemort's resources will be just as stretched as ours. If there's nothing else anyone feels like bringing up, I do believe this meeting is adjourned."

* * *

Harry was waiting on the stairs, watching as all the adults left the room. Phantom had floated off at some point, probably to consult with the Fentons, Harry was busy psyching himself for the immense task that lay before him.

"Be polite. Be polite. Be serious. Be polite. Be polite." Harry chanted under his breath. "Be humble. Be humble. Probably should turn off the ominous chanting at some point."

Honestly he'd rather be throwing down with a couple of Death Eaters, particularly blonde ferret like ones with extremely punch-able faces. Yes he could curse Malfoy into slime, transfigure the slime into a weasel, and then set Sirius on the weasel.

No! This wasn't the time for pleasant fantasies! It was time to ask Snape for Occlumency lessons. And speak of the Super-Devil, right hand man of his arch-enemy the universe, the terrible bat himself, Professor Snape himself was exiting the room now. Time to face the music.

Well time to shut it off actually.

Harry canceled the charm, took a deep breath, and headed over towards his professor. Snape saw him out of the corner of his eye.

"Potter, this is an unpleasant surprise," Snape said to the boy. "Isn't there some life threatening and attention grabbing trouble you should be getting into?"

Harry forced himself to ignore the barb.

"Sir, I have a request of you," Harry said, the bright green eyes he had gotten from his mother meeting Snape's black ones. He kept his tone respectful, but firm. "Will you teach me Occulmency?"

Snape flinched. Harry, still meeting the professor's eyes, thought that Snape was just surprised that he was being so respectful.

"And why," Snape began, his gaze turning uncertain and loosing its usual hardness. He quit meeting Harry's eye for a moment, rallied himself, and then met them again, eyes once more containing their usual hostility. However it dissolved once more when they met Harry's.

"And why," the professor repeated, this time sighing, "do you want to learn Occulmency?"

"Because I'm a security risk," Harry told his least favorite, okay second least favorite, he liked Snape more than Lockhart, teacher. "Because I should be helping, in anyway I can, but I can't because Voldemort and his lackeys can just pick anything I know about the Order right out of my head."

Snape looked at him for a moment.

"You really want to help?" He asked Harry. "You aren't just seeking thrills this time?"

"Yes, I really want to help," Harry answered. "I mean I'd really like to fight, but if I can't do that, I'd like to help in anyway I can. Preparing reagents, translating, fetching books, anything. It's not right that everyone else is risking their lives and I'm just sitting here."

Snape regarding Harry a little longer. And then he sighed.

"As refreshing as it is to see some signs of maturity from you Potter," the Potions Master said, "I'm afraid I must decline. I'm not going to be here often enough this summer to do more than weaken your mental barriers. And I would first have to consult the headmaster in any case, I have to take many liberties for my duties as it is-"

"Professor! Professor Snape!" The two enemies turned to look over to where Hermione was shouting from. The bushy haired girl was rapidly descending the staircase. Harry stepped out the way just in time to avoid being steamrolled by the girl.

"Professor! I need your help!" Hermione began, speaking a million words per minute. "The Fenton's have access to fresh pure ectoplasm, and according to Professor McGonagall you're the only one with all the qualifications to supervise experiments with it-"

"Fresh, pure ectoplasm," Snape said slowly, one eyebrow slowly rising. "Did I hear you correctly Ms Granger?"

"Yes!" The girl replied excitedly. "Both impure and pure ectoplasm! They can even synthesize the stuff! Just think of all the-"

Snape cut her off.

"I'm well aware of the potential Ms. Granger," the greasy black haired man said. He sighed and turned back to Harry. "It looks like I will be staying here after all. I will speak to the headmaster about giving you Occulmency lessons. But I warn you now, I will accept nothing but your absolute best, both in behavior and effort."

"Yes sir. Thanks you sir." Harry answered, still keeping his tone respectful. "Good day to you sir." He turned around and walked away.

That had been less unpleasant than he expected.

* * *

There had been some more cleaning to do that day. As mentioned before house was absolutely infested with all sorts of magical pests, but what hadn't been mentioned was that they pretty much formed a closed ecosystem. They continued to work on the drawing room after the meeting.

Harry thought if it hadn't been for the violence inflicted on the room, they wouldn't have made as much progress as they did. They cleaned wrecked Black heirlooms, pixie corpses and other foul things. It was so much easier when everyone could use magic.

Halfway through the process Danny Fenton came into the room and volunteered to help.

"I just feel sorta bad sleeping all day while you all work," he said to the room. "So what can I do?"

"Help your friends collect all the mundane items," Mrs. Weasley told him. "They're putting them in bags so we can sell them or burn them later."

Fenton complied. Sam and Tucker were busy clearing out a large set of cabinets next to the spot Harry was disinfecting a dressing table with a cleaning flame spell he had decided to learn one day while bored. Sure there were other simpler spells that he could be using, but on the other hand it was sometimes nice to clean via fire.

"So," the American boy began awkwardly, "other than the Dementor attack and that Voldemort guy's return, how's your summer been going?"

"Other than those horrific, possibly life altering events?" Harry replied. "It's been fine, a bit boring actually. But it's been looking up ever since I got here. I'll have plenty of time practicing magic, learning new spells, and I'm going to make sure to get plenty of dueling practice in. Oh, and I'm no longer totally isolated isolated from the war, kept in the dark, and waiting for Death Eaters to swoop in."

"Err... that's nice to hear," Danny returned. "Do you think you could help me and Sam with some of the DADA spells? Hermione told us that you're the best in your year for Defense Against the Dark Arts, so..."

"Sure," Harry answered, shrugging. "It'll be nice practice and review for me as well. And you're welcome in advance."

He used a quick Blasting Curse to kill a Pixy that had been peeking out of one of the unexplored cabinets. Danny, Sam, and Tucker yelped at the detonation.

Everyone continued their efforts until it was nearly dinner time. When the time to start cooking rolled around they had nearly completed the decontamination.

It had been exhausting.

That was to say, stopping himself from making any snide or blunt comments to Sam and Danny about just snogging and getting it over with. Honestly it was annoying to work next to them with all the shy glances, blushing, and accidental touching. But Harry felt that he should be a decent fellow and not comment on it.

But they were so obvious about it, Harry thought to himself as he watched the Americans leave, standing with Ron and Hermione, that it was possible that even Ron was starting to have an inkling-

"I think those two like each other," Ron commented to Harry and Hermione. "I'm not sure, but-"

Harry and Hermione's jaws dropped. Harry was glad that no accidental magic had gotten involved, otherwise their jaws may have actually reached the floor.

But it would have been called for. Ron had noticed it! Just how bad was it for _Ron _to notice it?

"What?" Ron asked, looking at the faces of his friends.

"Y-y-you noticed it," Hermione said. "Are you really Ron?"

The red head gave them both a look that plainly said he was not amused.

* * *

Harry found himself staying up later than usual that night. He had sequestered himself into an empty room that hadn't needed to be cleaned because it had contained absolutely nothing of note. It had a bare wood floor, bare wooden walls, and a bare ceiling. The boy-who-was-staying-up had also taken one of Hermione's extra-curricular DADA books.

"Let's see..." he said to himself, sitting cross legged on the floor and flipping through the pages of the book. "Advanced blasting curses. Elemental blasting, force blasting, disruption blasting, goo blasting... bodily fluid blasting? I either really need to look into that one or dedicate myself to erasing every last trace of its existence. Let's go with elemental blasting, how about wind..."

A simple quasi-Latin incantation, with different wand movements for effect. A jab for a quick fist of air, a long swish for a stream of wind, a slash for a crescent blast (with practice one could make it a blade), and finally whirl it for a spinning blast. Harry thought it would be best to start simple, with the jab, and work his way up from there.

He conjured up a couple of squares of wood, a bit of simple transfiguration nothing fancy. He arranged them on the end of the room opposite the door to the hallway. He made them different heights, from up to his calves, to half as tall as himself.

The wizarding child returned to the other end of the room and drew his wand. He looked over the incantation one last time, repeated it to himself, and then he stood up.

"Ven Flatus!" Harry said, jabbing his wand forward. An invisible ball of wind shot forth and knocked one of the larger targets over.

"Right, I probably should do something about the noise," Harry said to himself. "Quietous Protogo!" He pointed his wand at the door as he cast the spell. He repeated the action for each of the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. It wasn't a muffling spell, but it would create a noiseless area where it was cast. One could use it as a barrier to prevent noise from escaping.

"Alright, back to buisness," Harry turned back to the targets. That first blast had been far too weak, or at least based on the description he read. Time to try again, putting more umphf into it.

"Ven Flatus!" Harry threw more of himself into the spell this time, and was rewarded by a stronger, large blast of air sending one of the smaller blocks flying into the wall, leaving a large dent. Harry winced. Oh well, once he looked up the proper spells he'd only have to wave his wand and it would all be fixed.

"What you up to?" Someone said from right behind Harry. Harry jumped and spun around, instinctively pointing his wand at the source of the noise.

It was Phantom.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked the spirit, lowering his wand.

"Dumbledore asked me to stay here more often," Phantom replied shrugging. "I guess the war will be heating up soon or something, so he wants me on hand. So what are you up to?"

"Just practicing," Harry replied. "Thought I'd have some fun with advanced- Flatus Ven!- blasting curses." Another blast of wind. This was a pretty easy spell actually. Or at least the air fist bit was. Time to move on.

"Air blasts?" Phantom said. "Don't think I've run into that very often. There was this one guy who control weather I guess..."

"Let me guess, when it came to elements you mostly had to deal with fire and ice powers," Harry replied, choosing his next target. "Ven Flatus!" He swished his wand this time.

A small breeze made one of the wood blocks wobble.

"Alright, this will need a bit more practice," Harry commented. "So are you allowed to tell me what happened today? Ven Flatus!"

"We smashed up some things," Phantom replied. "Not going to say what though."

"Any trouble? Ven Flatus!" Harry briefly noted that Ron would have probably found the incantation amusing.

"Nothing much. Mind if I take a shot or two?"

"Be my guest. Ven Flatus!" This time the breeze knocked the block down.

"So, are you trying to call up a windstorm?" Phantom asked. He pointed one finger like a gun and let loose a small green blast. The block was sent flying up, with a small black smoking hole in the center.

"Good shot," Harry said. "Nope, a wind blast spell with different effects based on the wand movement. Ven Flatus!" He shouted and threw his all into the spell. He accidently swished the wand a bit too far upward. But he at least had gotten the power bit down. This time the wind stream scooped up the block and threw it against the top of the wall.

"Hmmm..." Harry looked back at the book. He didn't remember reading anything about that. Maybe it was simply obvious. "Ven Flatus!" He swished the wand downward this time.

Yeah, he'd be definitely working on the power of this spell for a while, but a jet of wind that could keep someone pinned down could be very useful. Time to move on to the slash.

"I take it you weren't expecting that?" Phantom asked, freezing one of the targets.

"Not really," Harry responded, raising his wand. "Ven Flatus!"

Whoops, tried a bit too hard with that one. He missed the targets and left a gash in the wall.

Phantom looked over at the wand.

"I still have trouble with people doing things like that with those fragile little sticks," the spirit confided in the boy. "Seems like they should break easily and leave you helpless."

"They're stronger than they look," Harry informed the spirit, "but yeah, that can be a problem. However-" Harry raised his left hand and flicked his wrist "-Ven Flatus!" A whirling ball of wind knocked over several blocks.

"We're not entirely helpless," Harry said, looking somewhat smug.

"From what I've been told, wandless magic is pretty hard," Phantom said. "I guess that's impressive."

"Not really," Harry replied. "That was pretty much spontaneous magic."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that was sorta like accidental magic. I only could do that spell like that because I felt like I could do the spell like that at the time. It was all on instinct." Harry looked at his hand. "Wandless magic is consistently repeating that on demand."

"So how do you do it?" Phantom asked. "Wandless magic that is."

"There are a couple ways," Harry replied. "Emotional control for instance. I could learn to recall this feeling on demand. Or meditation. A lot of wizards learn martial arts for that reason."

"Really? Martial arts?"

"Yeah. There are two common stories about that. One where the wizards tries to charges his enemy and gets cursed to jelly. And one where two foes end up next to each other by accident, and the one who studied martial arts crushes the other guy's throat before he can react." Harry looked at his hand. He formed it into a fist. "But most do it for the mental aspects. I should look into it." The wizard turned back to the targets.

"Ven Flatus!" He thrust his fist forward. Nothing happened.

"Heh," Harry shrugged. "I wonder if anyone tied wandless spells to martial arts before. Maybe elemental spells... Nah."

"It might make a nice TV series," Phantom suggested.

"It would be a horrible idea," Harry shot back. "And what network would host it?"

"Nickeldon?"

"That shitty network? I haven't seen much of it here in England but-"

"Hey! It's not that bad," Danny Phantom protested.

"Sure. Ven Flatus!" This time Harry whirled his wand. A blast of air like a sideways tornado shot forth, blasting the block backward, and making it spin like it was in a dryer.

"You know, I could use some practice with fighting non human opponents," Harry said. He waved his wand and recollected the blocks. "Feel like practicing sometime?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Phantom said a bit warily. "My powers aren't exactly safe to practice with on humans..."

"You could use a bit of practice with dealing with wizards though," Harry pushed. "And I just really need practice with inhuman movements, in case I have to fight a werewolf or vampire or something. I we could stick with sparks on my part and possibly goo on your part, until we figure something else."

"I guess," Danny gave in, "but not tonight. I've got other things to do tonight."

"Do you have to visit an old geezer to remind him about the spirit of the summer solstice?" Harry suggested. "Were you roped into the part of the Ghost of Summer present perhaps?"

"You know they didn't mention your sense of humor when they recruited," Phantom mentioned.

"It's a new development," the boy who lived told the ghost hero. "See you tomorrow night. Meet you here."

"Fine. See ya." With that Phantom turned intangible and left.

Harry looked at his left hand.

"Ven Flatus!" The blocks tumbled.

Harry smiled. This summer was really looking up.

* * *

AN: Sorry for the short chapter again. I'll hopefully make it up in the next chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Danny Phantom.

* * *

A cold, inhuman, pitiless voice spoke.

"Kill the spare."

There was a flash of green light and then Cedric's body was sprawled before him, eagle spread, blank eyes staring at nothing-

"Wake up!" Something shook him.

Harry's world went dark and he was lying within some soft warm thing. Someone was shaking him and calling out to him.

"Harry, you okay mate?" asked Ron's voice.

Harry groaned and poked his head out of the covers. Warm yellow sunlight filtered in through the window, at angle and color that, for some reason, bothered Harry.

Right, the angle and color indicated the time and the time was much to early for Harry's taste.

He made some incoherent sleepy annoyed noises and glared at his red haired best friend.

"Sorry, but you sounded like you were having a nightmare," the youngest Weasley boy told the orphan. "You were saying something about Cedric."

"I was having a nightmare," Harry replied. "Cedric came back as a ghost and invited us all to his deathday party. I couldn't think of an excuse to get out of it-"

"What's with you and all the jokes?" Ron asked, clearly not buying what Harry was saying.

"Oh, like you wouldn't scream after what happened with Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party?" Harry asked. He briefly thought about going back to sleep, but decided that it wouldn't work. He threw off the covers and got up.

"Look, Harry, you know I'm always here if you need to talk-" Ron began. But Harry interrupted him.

"I'll be sure to avail myself of your services for a nickel," Harry said. "And another nickel if you provide lemonade."

"Is that another joke?"

"I'm surprised you caught that," Harry admitted. "And you also caught the thing between Sam and Danny... is it possible? Are you becoming more perceptive?"

"Up yours!" Ron responded angrily, flushing a bit. "By Merlin's beard you're cranky in the morning. Breakfast's in three-fourths of an hour."

"Thanks," Harry said. He yawned. "Sorry, I might be a cross in the mornings. Just let me sleep in a bit more."

"By the way, where were you last night?" Ron asked.

"Practicing an advanced blasting curse," Harry answered. "Also spent some time talking with Phantom."

"Did he tell you anything?" Ron asked excitedly.

"Only that he's going to be staying here more," Harry informed the other boy. "He says it's because the war's heating up and Dumbledore wants him on hand."

"And you don't believe that?"

"I'm just saying that it's one explanation among many," Harry said. "Ugh. I well like it'll take till breakfast to get ready."

"I'll see if they're making any tea downstairs."

"Thanks," Harry muttered. He then turned his squinting, sleepy gaze towards the wardrobe that contained his clothes. He groaned. Teenagers did not like mornings.

* * *

"So you starting getting closer to closer to Harry like Dumbledore ordered?" Jazz asked. She, her brother, his best friend Tucker, and his - Jazz mentally snickered- friend Sam, where sitting around in the empty lab, gossiping among themselves. Jack and Maddie Fenton were out getting supplies, so they had a bit of time where they didn't have to keep watch.

"Actually, I sort of forgot about that," Danny replied. "I was just passing through the room and curious about what he was up to. And Dumbledore only asked me to keep an eye on him, not to become his friend or anything."

He shifted a bit, accidently brushing against Sam who was standing next to him. The halfa flinched back as if he had been burned, red spreading through his cheeks. Sam evidently didn't notice

"He also wanted to train with me," Danny continued. "So he can practice against inhuman movements. I think he's also looking for spells that would make it so he can do some heavier practice."

"Be careful with him," Jazz warned. "From what I've heard and seen he's got some issues. He seems to be using humor as a coping mechanism, but taken too far, or carried on for too long, it could end up being unhealthy. See if you can try and steer him to me, so I can try to help."

"I might think about that," Danny responded. "But if the bloke's- ugh, I'm starting to go native- handling things fine right now, then I don't really see the need."

"Just think about it, okay?" Jazz crossed her legs, one knee over the opposite leg, and leaned forward, clasping her hands on the top of the upraised knee. "Next we need to start planning for Hogwarts. The start of the school year isn't that far off."

"We've still got plenty of time!" Tucker protested. "There's no need to start worrying yet."

"Yeah!" Danny added.

Sam gritted her teeth.

"You two always do this!" She growled. "Well this isn't just some stupid assignment! This is a war and we need to do everything we can as soon as we can. Now let's start planning for how we'll deal with the school year!"

"Yes ma'am!" Danny and Tucker said in unison, both cowed.

"Good," Sam said with a smile. "Now what problems will we have to deal with?"

"Communication," Jazz began the brainstorming. "Owl's can be intercepted and they're slow. Most mundane methods of long distance communication don't work because of all the magic in the castle, and most magical forms of communication are stopped by the wards."

"Yes, but we've got the Fenton Phones!" Tucker told her. "They route their signals through the Ghost Zone and I'm pretty sure that Hogwarts doesn't stop people from opening portals to the Ghost Zone."

"Right, because no one knew how to do that until Mr. and Mrs. Fenton!" Sam pounded the bottom of her fist into her upturned palm. "Excellent! But we've never used them to talk from as far apart as we're going to be. Do they reach that far?"

"Maybe not," Tucker answered. "But if they don't we can always just have Danny place some relays in the Ghost Zone once the new portal is working."

"That's a good idea," Danny said.

"That's a great idea," Jazz corrected. "And Danny, next time you're at one of those meetings, bring up the possibility of using our access to the Ghost Zone more in the war."

"I don't know how safe that would be," her brother responded. "I mean I can take care of myself okay in their, but everyone else would be in danger. Plus we can't open portals to the real world from the Ghost Zone yet."

"So we can't use it to get past Voldemort's defenses," Tucker continued for his friend. "But that's besides the point. The other problem with the start of the school is that it'll be harder to have Phantom at headquarters."

"I don't think that's going to be an issue," Danny told him. "He wants me to keep an eye on Harry, remember? He'll probably have me move to school when the term starts."

"Good point," Jazz sucked her lower lip in and thought for a moment. "You're going to have to run the equipment we're building back and forth between here and school, Tucker and I can't enchant it without you or Sam. We should also decide whether or not we're going to hide the fact that we'll be communicating with each other-"

"Don't hide it," Danny said quickly. "I don't know how many more secrets I can deal with."

"Danny..." Sam's voice was tender. She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Danny sighed, unconsciously putting his hand over hers. "I'm just a bit tired. It should be better now that I don't have to guard Harry."

"Alright. Good to hear." Sam turned back to the conversation, forgetting to remove her hand from Danny's shoulder.

Jazz and Tucker rolled their eyes, internally gagging.

* * *

"One final thing Headmaster," Snape said, standing before the desk of Dumbledore. "The boy has asked me to teach him Occulmency. Seeing as I will be spending more time at the mutt's place, I believe I have time to give him an adequate grounding in the subject. Is that alright with you?"

"He asked something of you and you didn't dismiss him out of hand?" Dumbledore beamed at the Potion Master. "Could it be that you're starting to see past Jame's shadow-"

"Don't go about getting any ideas," Snape warned. "He merely showed some minor signs of maturity and, considering his usual behavior and situation, I decided that it would not be too harmful to-"

"He looked you right in the eye didn't he?"

"Yes headmaster, he did."

Tears welled up in Dumbledore's eyes.

"So, even after all this time-"

"Yes you sentimental old goat," Snape snapped. "So is it acceptable that I teach the boy Occulmency?"

"Yes Severus," Albus told his employee and friend. "But I would ask you to keep the pressure as low as you can. I know your philosophy but if you push him too hard it would be counterproductive. He even might break."

"I have taught the boy for four years," Severus responded. "He won't break from a little pressure."

"Still Severus, just be careful," the old wizard said. "Humor a worried old man, won't you?"

"Fine," Snape replied, rolling his dark eyes. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go play with pure ectoplasm. You might want to start looking for my replacement, in case I return in a matchbox."

* * *

"Well here it is!" Maddie Fenton announced, carrying a sealed metal container. She looked around the room. "What happened in here?"

It was the room Harry had been practicing in last night. The walls were dented and torn. In some places the material had been torn away, revealing the framework of the room.

"Just a little late night practice," Harry informed her. "Nothing to worry about."

"It seems to be a little... messy," Maddie commented.

"Nothing that one wave of a wand can't clean up, if I knew the spell that is," Harry said. "At least for a few weeks until I begin on disruption curses..."

"What was that?" The red haired ghost hunting mother asked.

"Nothing," Harry replied.

"So that's the ectoplasm?" Hermione asked, almost twitching with anticipation as she stared at the container. There were blinking electronics on the top and a keypad. Harry wondered if they actually did anything or simply made the thing look more sciencey.

"Yep," Maddie told her proudly. "Gathered, not synthesized. Always a pleasure to aid scientific research. Well, magical research in this case, but my point stands."

"So when we going to start?" Ron asked, snacking on a bit of beef jerky. "Shouldn't we be drawing up the wards or something?"

"No!" Hermione rounded on him. "Not until Professor Snape is here to supervise this! This could be incredibly dangerous and we need someone qualified to supervise everything. Professor Snape is the only person at Hogwarts who's been certified to deal with Class EX substances like pure ectoplasm."

"Well there must be something you can do. Maybe start working on the translations for the wards?" Mrs. Fenton suggested.

"The wards will be in English," Hermione told the woman. "We're not trying to obscure their function and construction, so there's no need to use a language we're not familiar with."

"Is that the reason they're always in old languages?" Maddie asked, tapping her chin as she thought. "I thought there would be more to it."

"There's a little more to it," Hermione explained. "Cultures deal with different concepts in different ways, something that is reflected in their languages. Some languages are better for certain types of functions. And then there's the culture's relationship with the reagents used to power the spells, the structures of their alphabets, and how well you understand the language. Older languages had to deal with magic more often than languages that developed after the International Statue of Secrecy, so it's usually more elegant to use them for complex spells."

"Oh," was all Maddie had to say.

They were silent for a bit while they waited for Snape to get to the building.

Phantom phased through the floor after a couple of minutes.

"What's up?" the halfa asked the room.

"Nothing much," Maddie replied. "Oh, we were just talking about some modifications we made to the Fenton Thermoses that you seem so fond of. Maybe you could take a look inside and see how you like them?"

"Ha, ha," Phantom said dryly. "But then again, I guess the only way for you to actually catch me would be for me simply to fly into one of those things. Or would that be the only way for you to catch any ghost?"

"Funny. I wonder if you'll be able to make jokes after we take you apart molecule by molecule." She drew out the last part of the phrase like her husband.

"You'd have to catch me first, so I'm sure everyone will be putting up with my jokes for a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, long time."

"I would hope that you could spend some of that time improving your humor," Maddie shot back. "I'm told some time alone helps with the creative process. Maybe we could put you in a thermos and bury you somewhere. You shouldn't be bothered for a couple millennia. Maybe you'll have some half decent material by the time they dig you up."

"If we're trusting in your shoddy construction then I'd be free in a couple of minutes," Phantom returned. He frowned as he glanced around the room. "Harry, why do you have a notepad out? What are you writing down?"

"No reason," Harry lied, putting the notepad filled with notes about the jokes in a pocket. "Just making sure I have it in case I see something interesting during the experiments."

Everybody in the room gave him strange and worried looks. Harry just shrugged.

It was then that Snape arrived. Black cloak billowing him behind him like bat wings, the hook nosed man took stock of the room.

"What was this room used for? Did Mr. Potter decide to practice brewing potions in this room? It seems consistent with his usual lack of results." The Potion Master finished in a drawl with a sneer.

"Advanced blasting curses actually," Harry answered. "I decided to get a jump on my DADA work."

"I don't think advanced blasting curses have been anywhere in the Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum " Snape replied. "Despite the variety and... quality of the teachers, no one has thought it necessary to give students the ability to create an even larger mess than they were already capable of doing."

Harry fought back a sarcastic response. He needed to stay within Snape's relatively good graces for Occulmency lessons.

"But I suppose it is refreshing to see you take even a minuscule interest in your studies for once," Snape continued. "I take it from your presence here that you will be participating in the experiments?"

"Yes sir," Harry replied.

"And respect as well! Will the wonders never cease? But enough of this, let us get down to business " Snape turned to Hermione. "You have the procedures written down I presume Ms. Granger?"

"Err, I thought we'd start with Gropp's Standard Tests for Medium Masses," the bushy haired girl replied nervously. "But, ah, I thought you'd be coming up with the experiments Professor."

"Silly girl," Snape chided her angrily. "I do not have time to come up with the hypotheses, nor the tests, nor analyze the data. I can only supervise the actual running of the experiments. It is up to you to do the rest."

"O-okay," Hermione answered. "Should we begin drawing up the wards then?"

"That would be prudent," Snape hissed.

Phantom watched curiously as Hermione moved the vat to the middle of the room. She then took out a bottle of ink and a brush. Snape conjured up a white cloth. The witch put the vat on the cloth and began to write in a circle around the vat, large enough for two people to stand in without discomfort.

Danny looked over her shoulder to see what she was writing. She wrote the same phrase over and over again, leaving space between each repetition. The phrase was: _By the scales of dragons, let no harmful energy cross this boundary._

When she was done writing she took out a couple of dragon scales from a box she had placed in the corner of the room. She placed one in each space. Then she re-inked her brush and took a step back.

She began to write a different phrase: _By the hairs of unicorns, let no harmful effect cross this boundary. _This time she put silver hairs between each piece of writing.

Hermione repeated the process a third time, with the phrase: _By the blood of trolls, no energy shall pass through this boundary. _This time she took out a bottle of a strange looking liquid, troll blood, and dabbed some of it between each sentence.

"The wards are ready Professor," the girl said to the cloaked man.

"Not quite," Snape told her. "The brush please Ms. Granger." She handed it to him. The Potion's Master then began to write a fourth set of words: _Let nothing pass but that which the bearer of this blood wills. _When he was finished he took a silver knife out of his robes and cut his arm. He then dripped blood in the appropriate places.

"Sir, do you really think that's needed for Gropp's Standard Tests?" Hermione asked as he handed the brush back to her.

"It is standard procedure for dealing with EX ranked controlled substances," Snape told her. He took out his wand, waved it, and healed his cut.

"What's so special about the last one?" Phantom asked.

"When activated, it will be powered with my own living blood," Snape informed the spirit. "It will be under my direct control and will draw power from my life. If, say, an explosion occurs, it will drain my life to contain the blast. If the ward breaks, I will die. But it is merely a standard precaution for dealing with substances like this. If there are any problems, the first three wards should be enough to contain them. Now, Ms. Granger, please enter the test area so I can activate the wards."

Hermione nodded and stepped into the inner most circle. Snape then took his wand and put it over the outermost circle. He tapped his wand in the air right above the blood. There was a glow, and then a thread of orange light attached itself to his wand. The Hogwarts teacher then threaded the light into the words. He repeated the process for each circle.

"You may now begin."

* * *

"Harry?" Ron asked as they cleaned one of the guest rooms while Snape and Hermione cleaned up. The war against the house was proceeding smoothly. Most of the more dangerous pests had been routed during the Cleaning of the Third Story Fireplace, most of the dark objects had been crushed during the tumultuous Emptying of the Attic, and the house elf heads had been removed during the running engagement of Cleaning the Stairs. They were all victories paid for in sweat, blood, and Harry's cleaning fire spell.

Harry admitted to himself that maybe he had enjoyed himself a little too much with that spell. The laughter may have been a bit over the top.

But cleansing the world- sorry, house- with fire was fun!

"What?" he responded to Ron.

"Did you understand anything we learned from the experiments?" The red haired boy asked the black haired boy.

"A bit," Harry answered. "Mostly how the ectoplasm's different from things like dragon's blood. But I don't know what that means. Hermione's going to be working on it. Make sure she goes to sleep, won't you?"

"Uh, sure," Ron was a bit hesitant in his reply. He probably remembered the last time the two of them had tried to get their female friend to remember to sleep when she was engrossed in work. It had not been a very pleasant experience.

"Ven Flatus," Harry said calmly, with a gentle swish of his wand. A gentle breeze blew across the surface he was supposed to be dusting.

"I'm really starting to get the hang of this spell," Harry commented. "A bit more practice and I can move on to other things."

Ron groaned.

"Why are you studying over the summer as well?" The youngest brother asked the orphan. "Isn't it bad enough that Hermione does it."

"Hey, unlike you, I happen to have a subject I like," Harry told Ron. "Besides, you heard what Snape said. It's not like they'll ever test us on this stuff."

"I don't know if that makes it better or worse."

* * *

After Snape had finished cleaning up the experiment he took Harry back into the room. He glared at the marks on the walls and waved his wand once. In a blatant violation of the laws of thermodynamics the walls repaired themselves.

"Now, Mr. Potter, do you know what Legilimency is?" The Potion's Master asked the boy-who-was-about-to-learn.

"That it's sort of like mind reading," Harry answered. "At least enough like it to get information out of my skull."

"Legilmency is nothing like the mind reading that muggles talk about, as if the mind was a book to be opened," Snape sneered back. "Though, given some of the Fenton's inventions, that may be changing soon."

"Sir, what exactly is the difference?" The dark haired boy asked the dark haired man.

"The term mind reading naively assumes one can simply eavesdrop on the thoughts running through a human's head," Snape explained. "Legilmency is the art of moving through the many layered thing that is the human mind, navigating the complex organ that is the human brain. Thoughts are not read like a script, they must be interpreted by the Legilimenist. The greatest practitioners can influence the minds they are trespassing upon. The Dark Lord has been known to torture his victims in that manner sometimes."

Harry clenched his fist angrily. Voldemort couldn't be satisfied with torture and murder, huh? He had to violate the last sanctuary available to a human, their mind.

"If the thought of him doing that to you upsets you, then I suggest-" Severus Snape began, but Harry Potter cut him off.

"I don't mind him doing that to me so much," Harry replied. "We've sort of been doing it to each other all my life. It's doing it to other people. He's taking the last thing some of them have from them. Isn't everything else enough?" Harry shook his head. "He doesn't deserve to even be called a human."

Snape was silent for a moment before continuing with the lesson.

"Now time and space matter in magic, eye contact is often essential for Legilmency to work. But skilled practitioners are able to circumvent some of the requirements, and thus all the concern about you being a security risk."

"And, just possibly, a pre-existing connection could aid practitioners? Like say the one between Voldemort and I?" Harry asked, his voice turning slightly bitter. "That's it isn't it. Voldemort can-"

"He is unaware of the depth of your connection Mr. Potter," Snape said curtly. "And thus has not yet started making use of it. If you learn Occlumency he may never make effective use of it. Now-" Snape drew his wand "-take out your wand Mr. Potter. We'll start simple, you may use your wand to disarm me or defend yourself in anyway you think is necessary."

Harry nodded and complied.

"I will attempt to break into your mind now. For now try to throw me out in the same manner that you would fight the Imperius Curse. Brace yourself- Legilimens!"

"Pro-" Harry's practice paid off, he was nearly able to cast the shield spell before Snape's spell struck. However, nearly wasn't enough. The room swam before his eyes and memories started to race through his mind.

"Expel-" Harry croaked out, treating the intrusion like the Imperious curse, "Expelliarmus!"

Snape calmly deflected Harry's signature skill with a casual wave of his hand. But he let up on his own spell.

"Not as bad as an attempt as I feared," Snape said. "You managed to keep some awareness and self control, but you wasted effort by failing halfway your spell. I will admit to being surprised by your attempt at defense, maybe there is a small slimmer of hope for you yet. We'll try again. This time try to repel me with your brain alone. Empty yourself of your emotions and prepare your will."

Harry nodded and took a deep breath.

"Now, once more, Legilimens!"

Once more Snape cast the spell. This time Harry grit his teeth and braced himself like he was expecting a tidal wave. This time the memories were hazy and slow. Harry could feel the intrusion in his mind being forced to 'crawl' through him. He tried to redouble his efforts, but unfortunately teenagers tend to be very emotional beings. He grew angry and that gave Snape an opening.

Harry yelled something incoherent and then found himself on his knees. He looked up at Snape.

"Did you mean to mean to use the Reducto Curse?" Snape asked, gesturing with a hand holding a trapped ball of light.

"No sir," Harry answered, panting.

"Once again you wasted effort, but you managed to at least resist me this time," Snape told his student. He closed his hand, extinguishing the trapped curse. "By the way," Snape asked, his lips curling, who was that boy, the one who looked like a pig. The one beating you with a stick."

"My cousin sir," Harry replied, growing angry with the Potion's Master. No wonder he agreed to do this, Snape would get to go through all of his bad memories.

"Empty your mind Potter," Snape said. "And again, Legilimens!"

Harry didn't even bother throwing up a defense. He threw all of his effort into casting the spell.

"Ven Flatus!" This time he found himself on all fours, panting again. He looked up. Snape stood there, a wedge shaped shield of blue light emitting from his wand.

"So that's what you were practicing," Snape guessed, lowering his wand. "I see you have begun to explore the possibilities of elemental magic. I would like you to avoid using that during these sessions, it seems to be rather dangerous, but given your poor control I doubt that the request is feasible."

"Wow," Harry blinked. "It looks like I got that down already. After only one night."

"What would be more amazing would be for you to apply the effort you apparently put into learning that spell into your schoolwork," Snape drawled. "But I guess that would be too much for a celerity like yourself."

"I'd just like to point out that I'm a slightly above average student, sir," Harry said, standing back up.

"And, despite all of his faults," Snape returned, "your father got excellent marks in his classes."

"Well, it would've been nice for him or mum to be here to help," Harry's reply was a bit heated. He bit his lip to stop himself from saying anymore. He then took a deep breath. "Sorry sir, I'm not good with the emotional control yet."

"That is plain to see," the teacher remarked. "But at least you are trying to compensate. Expelliarmus! Legilimens!"

Snape's surprise attack nearly knocked Harry back over. His wand flew out of his hand, sailing through the air only to be caught by Snape's hand.

"With your brain alone this time, Potter!" The professor shouted, his voice reaching the boy through the haze of memories. Harry focused, struggling against the intrusion. He was able to slow down the invasion a noticeable amount, but he couldn't stop it or throw it out of his head.

He began to lose control of his emotions, losing his ability to fight the invasion. So he ran with it. He showed Snape the memory of his fantasy about the greasy haired teacher being chased by the three headed giant dog, Fluffy.

When Snape tried to move on, Harry showed him the fantasy about him being petrified. He thought he heard Snape chuckle in the real world, but he couldn't be sure.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted on instinct, reaching out with his hand. Not expecting the wandless magic, Snape failed to secure Harry's wand. It flew into the boy's outstretched hand.

"Stupify!" A jet of red light shot out, only to be grabbed by Snape and crushed.

"With your brain alone Potter!" He cried out, deflecting another jinx from Harry as he spoke. The room became even less distinct and the memories started to flash faster than ever.

So Harry ran up and tried to headbutt Snape.

"A novel interpretation of my instructions," Snape said as he calmly sidestepped the boy, "but not what the exercise is about."

So Harry was forced to use his last resort; the memory of the one time he had seen his uncle stepping out of the shower.

Snape gagged and the invasion halted, then vanished.

"A much better method of driving someone out of your head," Snape said, looking a little sick. "One that I would love to see you use on the Dark Lord at some point. But for the sake of your sanity and mine, I would advise you to get someone to Oblivate that memory."

"I'll think about that sir," Harry answered.

"Well, your performance today was not as horrible as I expected," Snape admitted. "Now I want you to practice emptying your mind between sessions."

"Yes sir," Harry answered, wobbling a bit on his feet.

"Good. You are dismissed."

* * *

"Do you ever have to worry about mind reading?" Harry asked the spirit boy, flicking his wand at the same time.

"Not really," Phantom replied, stopping in midair to let the shower of red sparks pass in front of him. "I mean there are some weird ghost powers out there, and some spirits can use overshadowing to do something similar, but it's never been a big thing." He flicked a small bit of green light at Harry. The wizard jumped out of the way. "I take it that this is about your lessons with Snape?"

"Pretty much," Harry responded. He began to rapidly shot out streams of sparks, looking like he was wielding three wands at once. Phantom simply conjured a shield.

"I'm curious about something," the ghost said from behind his defense. "Do you think you could break this? It's a hasty shield, it doesn't have too much power to it."

"I can give it a try," Harry pointed his wand directly at the shield. "Confringo! Expelliarmus! Reducto!" Flames rushed over the shield, a jet of red light attempted to wrest it out of Phantom's control, and then the regular blasting curse impacted the center. The thing shattered and then vanished. Phantom, however was untouched.

"You know, I think it would be alright for you to use minor spells instead of just sparks," the half told the boy. "I could uses the experience in dealing with the different types."

"Sure thing," Harry replied. "Do you mind if I practice some of the new spells I'm looking into?"

"I guess," Phantom answered hesitantly.

"Good. I'll start with the bodily fluid blasting curses-"

"What!?"

"Just kidding. Aquas Flatus!" A ball of water hit Phantom in the face. Harry frowned. "That was supposed to be more like a bullet. Oh well, I've got time to practice."

"Why do I feel like I signed up to be a ghost punching bag?" Danny Phantom asked.

"No idea. Aquas Flatus!" Another ball of water, faster and more compact this time flew towards the ghost. Phantom froze and caught it.

"So, why are you worried about mind reading anyway?" The spirit boy used his ice powers again to turn the ice ball into a snow ball. He hurled the mushy ball at the dark haired boy.

"Ack! Cold!" Harry brushed the snow off of his face. "Mainly so I can start helping more."

"Uh..."

"Yes I know, none of the adults want me to fight," Harry responded with a bit more heat than he meant to. "Aquas Flatus! Ven Flatus!" He caught the water in the whirlwind blast. Phantom froze it on instinct and was pelted by a spiraling barrage of ice pellets. "But I want to help in some way."

"I thought you were still working on that wind thing," Phantom commented, flicking little bits of green light everywhere.

"Got it down earlier today," Harry answered. "Incarcerous! Aguamenti! Glacius!" Ropes wrapped around Phantom's limbs, were soaked with water, which was then frozen.

"You're attempting to use frozen ropes on a guy with ice powers?" Phantom asked, raising one eyebrow. "That's stone _cold _stupid."

"I just need you still for a second. Petrificus Totalus!"

Phantom causally snapped the icy ropes and used them as a shield.

"You forgot about the super strength," the ghost commented.

"Wouldn't intangibility have worked better there?" Harry asked. Phantom slapped his own forehead.

"Right, I always forget that one." The spirit said. He then let out a yawn. "It's getting late. I'm calling it a night. Talk to you later."

"Kay," Harry replied. "I'm going to practice with the water blasting spell some more."

"Night then."

"Night."

* * *

Severus Snape groggily blinked. The double agent had a very busy schedule, he had to perform duties for both sides, as well as prepare for the upcoming school year. Such things meant that the Potion's Master greatly valued his sleep.

Then why would he be waking up in the wee hours of the morning?

The fact that the map he had tied to certain sensing enchantments. It was glowing.

Snape forced himself to full awareness. It was time for the next action in the war.

* * *

AN: Finally a chapter that meets my minimum preferred length.


	11. Chapter 11

There was a loud knocking on the door of Dumbledore's quarters. The sun had not yet peeked over the horizon, though some of its light brightened the sky from black to grey. Outside the castle the grounds and forests lightly slept, knowing they would wake up soon. Inside the castle most of the staff slept, enjoying their summer holiday. It was only Snape who was roused at that hour, awake and trying to talk to his boss.

"Will you open up, you senile old frog!" Snape bellowed, pounding his fists against the door to Dumbledore's quarters. "This is important!"

"Severus, my dear boy," came Albus's voice from behind the Potion's Master. "Why are you attacking my door? Has it offended you in some manner?"

Snape stifled a growl. It would do no good to get angry with a wizard several orders of magnitude more powerful than himself.

He held up a piece of parchment. On it was a crude map of Europe, with some areas shaded green. Within the green areas there were a couple areas of shifting, glowing, red.

"Interesting," Dumbledore observed. "You managed to reproduce your schoolmate's accomplishments in cartography."

"I talked with the werewolf at the start of this business," Severus replied. "But that's not important. After the last operation I took the liberty of placing some enchantments on some of the Death Eater's equipment that was to be shipped out to foreign locations. I keyed the spells to this map, to let keep me informed of their locations and to let me know when there was any circular concentration of gold, silver, and mercury."

"Looking for more of those strange circles," Albus mused. "I take it they picked up something?"

"Yes, but I'm unsure of their exact location," Snape replied.

"And we need to verify which circles we can move against without compromising your activities," Dumbledore added, staring at the map. "My office should have some equipment that would help."

Delicate silver instruments whirred, wands were waved, maps consulted, and tea was consumed as the old wizard and the spy went about their work. Snape's parchment was was hooked up to a larger enchanted map by gossamer golden spell lines. Dumbledore was consulting the Order's own sensing spells, using a scrying bowl, and an enchanted mirror to see across the lands.

"The circles in Germany are out of our reach," the old wizard concluded, "and the ones in Belgium would give away your status. We're left with with two in France, and one in Turkey, by the Anzac Cove. Why has Voldemort expanded his operation so? What are the circles to be used for? What is the significance of these locations?"

"It is something the Dark Lord is playing very close to his chest," Snape responded. "He has said no word about any of this to his inner circle. Only those responsible for the project have any knowledge on it. Any progress on deciphering the circle the werewolf copied down?"

"Very little," the aging headmaster answered. "I'm reasonably sure that all of it is written in various obscure dialects, making the translation process even more difficult. It has given me more reason to lament the path Tom has chosen. If he had decided to turn his talents towards something constructive..."

"It would be a hypothetical possibility that has little to no bearing on the subject at hand," Snape interrupted. "Now is the time we must decide on our course of action."

"There is always time to reflect on the paths lives might have taken," Dumbledore replied solemnly. "We must do so to remind ourselves why all life is valuable."

"I'm sure the Dark Lord will stop and give you the time to ponder such things," Snape snapped back. "Before he kills you, the other teachers, and every muggle-born in the school."

Albus sighed.

"If you must be so impatient," he replied. "One team this time. We have a good fix on the exact location of the circle in Turkey, we'll send an assault team after that one. The location of the French circles are more vague, we can't afford to waste resources going after them, they'll have noticed our scrying and will be preparing to evacuate. I'll gather the Order at once. We'll meet at half past seven this morning. You go rouse the Fentons and see if Phantom is at Grimmauld place, before I try and contact him. All might be needed for this."

* * *

Danny groaned as something shook him.

"Dude, you have to get up," he heard a male voice hiss in his ear. Danny groggily groaned, and opened one eye.

Tucker was kneeling by the bed, shaking the halfa.

"Snape's here," the dark skinned boy told his friend. "He's looking for Phantom. There's something big going down."

"Ask them to postpone the war, would you?" Danny muttered, glaring out of one sleepy eye. "Some of us need to sleep."

"No can do," Tucker replied. "Just duplicate and transform already."

Danny's blue eyed glared turned into a glowing green one before he sat up and threw off his covers. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. A ring of light went up and a ring of light went down, resulting in Danny Phantom standing where Danny Fenton once stood.

The halfa then became two halfas, one of whom transformed back into Danny Fenton.

"I'm going back to bed," the duplicate declared. "Don't get yourself killed."

"Nice to see that you're so worried about yourself," Danny replied to his duplicate. "Good thing Jazz wasn't here to see this, I don't know what sort of mental problems she'd think I have."

"Snape's in the kitchen, having some tea for now," Tucker informed his friend. "You might want to go see him before he starts ransacking the house."

"On it," Phantom replied. He went intangible and sank through the floor. He half heartedly flew to the kitchen before becoming solid once more. Snape idly glanced up when the ghost boy appeared, from his seat at the table with a warm cup of tea in hand.

"Phantom," Snape said, looking around to make sure there were no unwelcome visitors, "we've located another one of those circles. We're preparing to attack."

"Where?" Danny asked, fighting grogginess.

"Anzac Cove, in Turkey," answered the Potion's Master. "Be sure to be here in two hours, when we go over the final plans and mobilize."

"Got it," the halfa replied, suppressing a yawn. "What do we know about the situation so far?"

"Not much," Snape replied. "Only that it is more likely to be more heavily guarded than the last."

"Figures," Danny muttered. "I'll be there when you need me."

* * *

"What's going on?" Sam hissed to Danny as she, him, Tucker, and Jazz sat around one of the clean spare bedrooms. "What did Snape want?"

"Battle," Danny told her wearily. "Another circle. Two hours... actually one hour and forty five minutes now. Let me get a bit more sleep, okay?" The currently blue eyed boy let his head fall onto the soft pillow.

"Where?" Tucker asked, bringing up a map program on his hand held electronic device.

"Turkey. Some cove." Danny muttered, wrapping himself in a blanket and turning over. "Anz- something or other."

"Anzac?" Tucker asked. "The place where the Australian and New Zealand forces invaded the Ottoman Empire?"

Danny growled and pulled the blankets up to ear level.

"I don't think he would know if even if he wasn't half asleep. You know how much attention he pays during history class," Sam told Tucker. "Is that important?"

"Maybe," Tucker replied. "If nothing else it would be nice to check up on the terrain."

"I'm sure the Order's already doing that," Jazz told Tucker. "I don't think there's a lot we can do that they aren't already doing right now."

"We should try and do something," Sam protested, making sure to keep her voice to a whisper. "We can't just-"

"Sam, this is one of those hard lessons I've had to learn myself," Jazz told her quietly. "But sometimes there's nothing one can do. Let's just let him sleep and wake him up when it's time for him to get going, okay?"

"You're the one suggesting this?" Sam asked incredulously, even as she and Tucker began to head to the door.

"Hey," Jazz returned, "everybody learns eventually."

* * *

"Sorry I'm late," Lupin called out as he rushed into the meeting room. "It took me a while to find everything I needed."

"Such as new patches for your clothes?" Snape sneered.

Dumbledore sighed and ignored the Potions Master. Like usual he sat at the head of the table, with the usual Order members seated at it, leaning on the walls around it, or, in one case, floating above it.

"We have discovered another one of the spell circles that Remus, Sirius, and, Phantom found during their last raid," the elderly wizard said to the assembled magic users and spirits. "It is located in Turkey, at a place called Anzac Cove. Our intelligence suggests that it will be under much heavier guard this time."

He tapped one finger on the table and called forth the image of the geography he had been referring to, projecting it on the air above the table.

The cove was covered in trees, with the occasional small group of muggle buildings scattered throughout its expanse. The area was hilly as well, creating swells of green and brownish yellow. A grey ocean licked at the bases of the hills, lapping over smooth beaches.

"However we are unsure of the exact strength and nature of these defenses," the silver bearded wizard continued. "If you would all look closely here..." The image zoomed in on a wooded area that held no sign of muggle development. When it did so, the picture became blurry. "They have anti-scrying enchantments, and numerous other spells to keep both muggles and wizards away."

"The plan, Professor Snape, Alastor Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and I came up with," Albus continued, "is unfortunately simple. No doubt they will be aware that we have found this location and are preparing to move the circle as we speak. It goes thus."

He tapped one finger again and the blurry cove became a map. A red circle surrounded the area that the Death Eaters occupied, with muggle towns represented by black dots and names.

"Phantom will fly through each of these towns, preferably shouting something about chasing a ghost," Dumbledore explained, a yellow arrow appearing on the map, crossing each of the names that represented a town or village. "This will eliminate most of the need to keep the battle secret, the muggles will assume it to be phenomena related to the Amity Park spirits."

"While he was doing this, three groups of five and a group of two will Apparate in around the borders of the enchanted area," the headmaster continued. Three green rectangles and a small blue square appeared around the red circle. "When Phantom is done with his flight he will join the group of two. At that time all wizards present will attempt to cast a mass Finite Incantatem on the first layer of defenses. All groups are to then move in and attempt to either retrieve or destroy the circle. Alastor, Kingsley, and Minerva will lead the three groups."

"Does anyone have any questions or suggestions?" Dumbledore asked the room at large.

"What equipment will the team be bringing?" A witch asked.

"The usual, although I had hoped that the Fentons might have something..." Albus answered, turning to Jack and Maddie.

"Well..." Maddie began, "We've got some experimental stuff. None of it's properly tested, so in good conscious I couldn't let you use most of it. However we have some magic disrupting grenades in the testing area currently- well they'll disrupt any complex field not just magic, but that's all you'll need to worry about now- that are relatively safe for use."

"We've got two down in the lab," Jack added, his usual boisterous manner not diminished by the early hour. "Don't worry about using them all, they're a cinch to make."

"Very good," Dumbledore said in a pleased tone, clapping his hands together. "Anything else?"

Nobody raised a point or suggestion.

"Then I shall ask for volunteers now," the old man continued. "I'm sorry Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, not this operation. It's too far out and you're still acclimatizing yourself to the magical world."

"But I wanted to kick evil butt," Jack said despondently. He sighed. "Oh well, more time to work on the Fenton-Ecto-Minature Security Camera!"

About half the room volunteered, more than the number required. Dumbledore mostly chose the most experienced wizards and witches, those who had fought in the last war and the more senior Aurors. But, for some reason, he included Tonks in the group.

"Remus, Sirius," the old man told the two after organizing the rest. "You two will be with Phantom again, having worked well together before. I trust that there will be no objections to this arrangement?"

"I'm fine with it," the only surviving Black replied.

"It will be a pleasure," the werewolf answered.

"Good with me," the halfa added.

"Maddie, Jack, I trust you have no objection to letting Phantom borrow your equipment for this operation?"

Maddie turned her nose up at the thought.

"He can steal it like he usually does if he wants any," the ghost hunting mother replied.

"Considering your lab is unguarded, you've told everyone where the 'grenades' are, and he can get there faster than you, I'll take that as a face saving affirmative," Dumbledore seemed somewhat amused by her answer.

"Dibs!" Danny shouted before turning intangible and speeding off towards the lab.

Jack and Maddie grinned evilly at each other and then turned to Dumbledore.

"Undefended you say? I guess we forgot to turn on Ghost-Dissuasion Field." Maddie said.

"No we didn't!" Jack said triumphantly, completely missing the point of his wife's remark. "Come on let's listen for the scream!"

They put their hands up to their ears for a moment.

No scream sounded from the lab.

"You don't think we actually forgot to turn it on, do you?" Maddie asked Jack, a little worried.

Phantom reappeared behind them, two grenades on his belt.

"Ha, your little security field thing sucks!" The halfa said, blowing a raspberry at the ghost hunters before speeding off again.

Jack and Maddie stared off after him.

"Do you have the dissection table ready?" Maddie asked Jack without looking.

"Yeah. Ready to take him apart molecule by molecule?"

"Just remember to accidently lose the anesthetic first."

* * *

"Don't think you'll get away from me that easily!" Danny Phantom shouted, blazing through the small Turkish town. Due to time zone differences it was mid to late morning in the country, compared to early morning Britain. The halfa sped under a bright sun, tail streamlined behind him, as he chased a non-existent foe. People on the streets looked up, pointing and whispering among themselves as the infamous ghost boy of Amity Park flew overhead.

Danny, Lupin, and Sirius had portkeyed in ten minutes earlier. When they had arrived Danny had felt his ghost sense stir, but it didn't activate, just like during the last mission. He would have to talk to Sam, Tucker and Jazz about that.

The wizards started to set up a forward base of operations and Phantom started to buzz the local populace. He flew through the summer air, over the relatively short tree tops on the hills jutting out into the sea. The air was warm and dry, but the heat had not had chance to build up, and the sun was still rising, so it was bearable.

After ten to fifteen minutes of buzzing muggles Danny flew back to Sirius and Lupin. His tail reverted to legs and he skidded to a stop next to the wizards.

"Alright, hopefully they'll blame whatever happens next on me and some crazy ghost," the spirit boy said to the two wizards.

"Hopefully it won't come to that," Lupin replied as he surveyed the soon to be battlefield. "But preliminary sensing spells have revealed that a large numbers of enchantments have been placed on this land. This could be messy."

"How long until we move out?" Danny asked the former teacher.

"Whenever you're ready," Remus replied. "Sirius will give the signal."

Danny took a look at the area. It was a small hill in the relatively rugged terrain, covered in trees. He couldn't see any signs of magic and he didn't feel like trying to sense any either.

"I'm good," the halfa told the werewolf and the animagus. "Let's go."

Sirius grinned, put his wand to his throat, threw back his head, and appeared to let loose a silent howl. A silver flare flew out of his mouth instead of sound. It ascended about one hundred feet before exploding in a flash of silver and a wild sounding howl.

"One, two, three! Finite Incantatem!" Wolf and hound cast the spell in unison. At the same time the other teams must have done so as well, because Danny could feel clash of magics. The spells here were much greater than the ones at the farm. To Danny's limited senses they seemed to be rooted into the land itself. To him the clash felt like watching an earthquake, watching hills and mountains quiver.

"First layer down!" Sirius shouted. "Time to move in!"

"In a flash!" Phantom shouted, legs turning into a ghostly tail. He shot forth, accelerating wildly, fast as lightning.

Well, no actually. Nowhere near as fast lightning, particularly the red bolt that sprang out of the ground and hit him in the chest. The halfa cried out as the electric power coursed through him, burning everywhere it went, and hurled him back like a rag doll. The halfa hit the ground, hard, knocking the breath out of his lungs, his body quivering from the impact even as he bounced once. He then skidded on the ground, digging a small furrow as he went.

"Well, that was a bit of a shock," he said absentmindedly when he had stopped and recovered his breath.

"You can say that again," Sirius said, hurrying over to check on the spirit. "You alright mate?"

"Well, that was a bit of a shock," Danny repeated, making Sirius roll his eyes. "It hurt, but I've had worse."

"Good," Sirius turned his eyes back to the hill. A whirring sound started to emanate from the minor height and four large red ring, about the size of two men laying head to head, rose from the hill. Each ring contained five red globes connected by rune covered bars. An even larger disc rose from the top identical to the others in every respect but its size. The other four rings began to orbit it, making it hard to get a good look at any of them. They produced a low key humming sound as they went.

"Those are Malfoy's work," Sirius said glaring at the devices. "That family started to specialized in lighting magics during recent generations; there was even some talk of changing their crest to a lightning struck tower."

"Do you know how to take them down?" Danny asked. Getting hit by electricity was never fun. He considered going intangible to deal with the issue, but considering the electricity itself was clearly magical by its odd color, it might actually make things worse.

"It depends on what else they've got there," the last Black answered. "Reducto!"

The blasting curse streaked towards one of the rings. It vanished about ten feet away, disappearing into a green glow.

"They've got it shielded," Sirius explained. "And-"

He was interrupted by three yellow jets of light shooting out from wooded hill. He yelped and jumped out of the way. Danny followed suit and rolled out of the way. The ground that was hit by the spells melted as if it the spells had been acid.

"Can't get close, and they can shoot at us from behind their shields," Sirius muttered. "This is so unfair."

"What about another mass Finite Incantatem?" Danny asked. He held one hand down low, like he was about to throw underhand. Green ectoplasm gathered, glowing, flowing, roiling as Phantom shaped it into sphere. He hurled it at the disks. It exploded against the shield, forcing a patch about the size of a single story house to light up.

On instinct the ghost boy called up his translucent green shield, just in time to catch three curses.

"Won't work on a shield like that," Sirius told him. Back on the hill electricity crackled and lashed out into forest around it's base.

"That'll be the others," Sirius explained. "They must have seen what happened to you and decided to move in slower. I hope their protections hold against this thing."

From three locations around the hill a turquoise light began to shine. A blue-green substance that resembled mist began to swirl around each of the locations, gathering into a fuzzy mass. And then the swirling became spinning and the mass swirled into a lance. Three drills of the mist like substance began to grind into the shield, forcing large patches to light up the air. Danny could hear the grinding noise from the clash, as if the bones of the earth were grinding together. Lightning and curses were launched in response, aiming for the base of the drilling spells. Danny hoped that the other wizards had their own shields up.

"It'll take too long to bring down the shield using that spell," said Sirius as they watched. "I know that, Lupin knows that, everybody knows that. We've as good as lost."

The wizard kicked at the ground.

"Dammit! Where are they getting the power for all of this?" He glared at the hill. "We're not near a ley line or anything..."

"Isn't there something we can do?" Phantom asked. "I've got a couple of things I can hit it with."

"I'm not going to stop you," Sirius responded. "But I am going to warn you that they might have some nasty surprises waiting."

"Phantom," Lupin's voice called out before the halfa could do anything. Danny turned to see him hurry over to him and Sirius in that odd crouched manner people used under fire. "Those anti-magic grenades. Do you think you could use them to get through the shield?"

"No clue," the halfa told the werewolf. "Get your wands out and we'll find out."

Sirius and Lupin complied, readying curses to strike down the lightning generators hovering over the hill. Phantom took one of the grenades, flicked a switch, pulled the pin, and threw it.

Before it could reach the shield it was struck by a whip of electricity. It exploded, sending small pieces of red hot metal flying.

"Okay, here's the plan," Sirius said, keeping his eyes on the hill. "We need to find some way of getting that grenade close to the shield."

"I could cover it in ice," Danny suggested.

"I don't think that'll work," Lupin replied. "Unless... Phantom how many projectiles can you produce at once?"

"Ummm... I never really counted," the ghost said. "I just throw a bunch of ice spikes for stuff like that."

"Phantom, what's your maximum lifting capacity?" The Black heir asked the ghost.

"Ten or thirty tons," Phantom answered. "Why?"

"Because the best way to deal with electricity is to be well grounded," Sirius replied. "We're going to put a boulder around your grenade and you're going to throw it."

"Yes, yes that could work," said Lupin. "How does that device know when to blow up?"

"It's got a timer," Danny answered. "How long do you want me to set it for?"

"What's the longest time?" The werewolf tilted his head as he examined the device at the spirit's waist.

"Thirty seconds I think."

"Sirius you keep count," the werewolf said to his friend. "Phantom turn it on and put it on the ground."

The ghost boy complied. Sirius began to count down and Lupin waved his wand once. The earth beneath the weapon shifted and rose up around it. Ten seconds later there was a mid sized boulder where it used to be.

"Eighteen, seventeen," Sirius counted. Phantom didn't need to be told time was running out. The halfa grabbed the large rock in both hands, flew up, waited a couple seconds, and heaved. Red electricity lashed out, utterly destroying the boulder. The rock was reduced to large pieces of rubble that bounced off the shield. None of them made the shield give off so much as a spark of light. Not even the one spherical metallic piece of rubble.

There was a flash of rainbow light and then the space was _distorted__. _There was no other way to describe it. Images viewed through that area were either larger or smaller than how they should appear, as light went through lenses of twisted air. Colors were off, either becoming redder or bluer.

And where the distortion touched the shield green light shone and then cracks of black light seeped through it. The tendrils spread, lighting up the shield as they went. A few seconds after the detonation the whole shield was glowing green with tendrils of black light intertwined within it, like cracks in a breaking window. Then everything flared and disappeared.

Without any resistance to hold them back the three drill spells shot forward. Each spell speared through one of the lesser disks that maintained the electric defense. The hit disks were reduced to slag that was sucked up by the spiral of the drills.

"Reducto Maximus!" Remus shouted right after the shield fell. A blast of blue light lept from his wand and landed on one of the untouched discs. Like a baseball bat hitting a fine piece of china, the curse shattered the enchanted metal.

"Ignus Flatus!" Sirius shouted, jabbing his wand forward. A small globe of orange light shot forth. It streaked into the remaining disc. The globe never touched the disc; the metal glowed red hot and then melted before the globe got close enough. Sirius's spell cut the disc in half, each piece wobbling in the air before crashing to the ground.

"My turn!" Phantom cried out. He held his arms out, hands up, and gathered ectoplasm into two green discs of his own, about the size of saw blades. With a small effort he had them start to spin, thinning them out, making them sharper. He swung his hands down and back and then hurled the two discs forward. They buzzed through the air and cut into the large disc with a screech. With another small effort of will Danny had them explode. The last piece of the lightning defense slowly fell to pieces.

"Move in!" The shout came from everywhere at once; it must have been from some sort of communication spell, cast by Moody from the sound of it. Lupin and Sirius charged forward; Phantom flew in at top speed.

On the hilltop he could make out a small clearing. One aristocratic looking man in black robes and a mask, with long blonde hair, was shouting at two other men doing something to what looked like the magic circle that the Order wanted to capture. Three other men, in black robes but without masks, were pointing their wands down the hill, looking for Order members to target.

Danny increased his speed, hoping to catch the dark wizards off guard. But one managed to catch a glimpse of the speeding ghost boy and shouted a warning to the others. One was quick enough on the draw to get off a curse. A bolt of yellow-green light shone from a wand. One of the halfa's hand's glowed green and he swatted the curse upward.

The aristocratic man turned towards the rapidly approaching threat and slashed downward with his wand. There was a silver flash and Danny felt something like a sledgehammer hit him between the shoulder blades. The speeding halfa was knocked out of the sky, his forward momentum carrying him several trees before losing enough kinetic energy to slam into a branch without it breaking.

It wasn't a particularly bad blow for the halfa; most of the fights during the middle of his career had him taking worse hits on a regular basis. But it took him out of the fight for a couple crucial seconds. Danny shook twigs and leaves out of his hair and then looked up from the branch he was draped over.

All the dark wizards had gathered around the magic circle. Everything was glowing. The mask man looked at the circle, nodded, and then turned to the halfa.

"You won't be interfering with our Lord's designs today spirit!" The man shouted to Danny. "You've thrown your lot in with the wrong side. If you join us now the Dark Lord may be merciful."

"Stuff it!" Danny shouted. He brought a hand up, preparing to blast the circle. But the blonde man was faster. The tree Phantom was lying in exploded. Danny went intangible on instinct, catching himself in mid fall as wooden shrapnel flew through him, arms crossed over his face. When he lowered them he could see the dark wizards without masks smirking as they and the circle began to fade.

It was-

"Bugger off Malfoy!" Sirius's voice called out. A jet of black light scored across the circle even as it faded away, leaving a small scratch along its diameter. The masked man snarled and then everything vanished.

"How'd you get here so fast?" Phantom said, turning to the animagus.

"Turned into a dog," Sirius replied. "And I may have had Remus launch me part of the way. It was worth it though, the thought of Malfoy having to explain this failure to Voldie will warm my heart for years to come."

"But they got away-" Phantom returned. "We didn't capture the circle, we only scratched it, and they-"

"Something like that circle, something as complex and finely tuned as that, a small scratch can completely ruin it," Sirius told the ghost boy. "And I'm betting each one of them is highly expensive and difficult to make. Trust me, this definitely wasn't a success for them."

* * *

"This operation was not a success for us," Dumbledore stated gravely, hands steeped together in front of him. Once more the Order had convened at Grimauld place, this time for the debriefing. Everyone had taken their usual positions around the table. "But it was also not a failure. Even if we didn't get another circle to analyze we at least denied use of it to Voldemort. But this operation has raised many questions. Where were the Death Eaters getting the power for their defenses? Phantom, can you sense other spirits when they are sealed?"

"I don't actually know," Danny answered. "I felt something there, but I also felt it in France during that last mission."

"But there were no extraordinary defenses there," Dumbledore said, thinking aloud. He sighed. "It may be a coincidence. Or it may have something to do with the circles themselves. Or they had a sealed spirit hidden somewhere on the farm. Too many mysteries, too few clues."

"I will keep my ear to the ground," Snape said. "If he's using sealed spirits-"

"Excuse me, where did you say this was occurring? Anzac Cove, wasn't it? " Maddie interrupted. "Because if we're fast enough with the Fenton Finder we might be able to tell find out right away."

"You have a device that can locate spirits that far away?" Lupin asked incredulously.

"Sort of," Jack replied. "We have to piggyback it off some GPS satellites and we have to deal with the natural background radiation, but we can use the Fenton Finder to get a good idea if there's a spirit there or not."

"Then by all means use your device," Albus told the two ghost hunters. "We will wait until you have some results."

Jack and Maddie nodded and then took off for their lab.

Ten minutes later they returned with glum expressions on their faces.

"No good. The background radiation is too high for confirm or deny the existence of a ghost in that location," Maddie told the Order.

"That place was radioactive!" Danny Phantom's voice rose a few octaves. "Crap crap crap crap crap crap-"

"It wasn't that sort of radiation," Maddie told him, deadpan, "and even it it had been, the levels weren't high enough to be dangerous. Also, you're a ghost. I doubt you have to worry about radiation."

"Oh," Danny said, one hand on the back of his head, fighting an embarrassed blush. "Heh, heh."

"And _you're_ the ghostly defender of Amity Park," Maddie muttered in a disgusted tone. "It's a miracle we lasted this long."

"Maddie," Albus spoke up. "What do you mean the background radiation was too high?"

"Right, sorry," it was Jack who answered. "The Fenton Finder works by analyzing the energy in a given area. If the energy is fluctuating in certain ways it means there's a ghost there."

"Couldn't you just search for ectoplasmic energy?" The headmaster asked the ghost hunter.

"That's one of the things we do look at," Jack replied. "But you have to understand that there'a a very low level field of ectoplasmic energy covering the Earth. It's not uniform either, so we can't just look for any discrepancies. We have to see how other things, heat, light, alpha, beta, and other radiations are acting too. For example, Invisible-Bill here-"

"Hey!"

"-can be tracked via thermal fluctuations," Jack continued, smirking. "Wherever he goes he pushes the heat away and concentrates the ectoplasmic energy. But the problems is, say we're looking for him in the Arctic or Antarctic. It would be harder for us to detect the changes in thermal radiation and he could hide in the natural ectoplasmic fluctuations. And he's a spirit where we know what we're looking for. For Anzac Cove the natural ectoplasmic radiation is unusually high-"

Dumbledore's eyes lit up.

"And at the French farmhouse?" He asked. "Mr and Mrs. Fenton, I have a favor to ask of you two. Can you two prepare a report on the two locations, with emphasis on their magical and spiritual properties."

"Sure," Maddie replied, looking puzzled. "May I ask why?"

Dumbledore hesitated for a second, debating on whether or not he should share his suspicions. It seemed harmless enough to do so, but Dumbledore knew that one should always take at least a second to think on such things. Things that were said could not be easily unsaid.

In the end he decided that this bit of information was best shared.

"From what little I've been able to decipher from the first circle, the function of the enchantments has something to do with the land," Albus told the two ghost hunters and the room at large. "I dismissed it at first; without any other information it could have been any number of things. But if there was something special about both locations..."

"Then it could be a clue to what the circle's supposed to do!" Sirius exclaimed.

"I see," Maddie replied. "I think we can put one together by the day after tomorrow."

"Excellent," Dumbledore said, steeping his fingers once more, his eyes twinkling merrily. His old student couldn't hide his nefarious activities for much longer!

* * *

"Anything?" Harry asked Fred and George. They were hanging about the second story landing.

"Nothing yet," George replied, fingering the flesh like attachment that connected the Extendable Ear to him. "And Tucker doesn't have his bug working yet, so we're out of luck. Maybe you can get something out of Phantom later."

"I doubt it," Harry said. "He's pretty tight lipped about what he does for the Order."

"Great," Fred sighed. "Maybe they won't keep whatever happened today a secret."

"I doubt that," Harry returned. "Secret seems to be the word of the season. Everyone and their mum is keeping secrets."

"Well they're propriety information about our inventions," Fred said, faking a hurt look. "We can't just go around telling people about them, they'll steal our ideas."

"And you don't know how many people are after some of our mother's recipes," George added grinning. "She can't just talk 'bout them willy nilly either."

Harry mock scowled at them.

"You know, as the primary investor in your shop I should be privy to your secrets, and free to sell them off," Harry told the twins with a wicked grin. "And I could probably weasel those recipes out of your mother."

"You wouldn't!" The twins exclaimed as one.

"You want to bet on that?" Harry said still grinning. "This round is mine. Tell me if you find out anything." He turned around and headed up towards the third story.

"We'll concede this round, but mark my words Potter," George called out to Harry.

"-the next round will," Fred continued, "be - Ow! Damn your draw is fast."

* * *

"Could your ghost sense be reacting to the ectoplasmic radiations your parents mentioned?" Sam asked Danny. The usual group was sitting around a third floor bedroom. Danny sat on the floor leaning against a bed, Sam sat on the bed right next to him. Jazz was sitting on a makeup table and Tucker was sitting backwards on the only chair in the room, arms over the back, fiddling with his device.

"I don't think so," Danny said. "I mean Amity Park has got to be alive with the stuff and my ghost sense doesn't react like that there."

"Then what's so special about a French farmhouse and a Turkish cove?" Jazz asked. "What are we missing?"

"Anzac Cove was the site of some fighting in World War One," Tucker responded. "But I don't know anything about the farmhouse."

"Actually, there were old shells everywhere," Danny told the room. "And the house looked like it had been hit by some artillery."

"Dumbledore said the circles had something to do with the land," Sam tapped her chin as she thought. "Maybe the land has special properties. Something that drew the soldiers there... I'll have to see if I can't find something about magical land in our textbooks."

"Like the land creates conflicts or death?" Jazz asked, also deep in thought. "Voldemort might be trying to harness its power. Maybe that's part of how he's keeping the Ministry of Magic off of his back; he's using the lands to create a conflict between them and Dumbledore."

"Seems a bit convoluted," Tucker replied. "From what we've heard that wouldn't actually be necessary with the Ministry being as corrupt as it is."

"And I don't think the land merely being magical would do anything to my ghost sense," said Danny. He shook his head. "Argh. I don't want to be thinking right now. I'm tired and even though it's healed by now, my shoulder is killing me."

"It's probably because you're low on energy," his sister told him. "You probably didn't actually heal up all the way before reverting to human form and what was left of the injury came with. You're going to need to ask for a week off soon or it might get to dangerous to let you go on more missions."

"I'll be fine as long as I use duplication," Danny responded, narrowing his eyes a bit. "Designating one the 'original' only matters in terms of energy and information flow. It's still me no matter which one is left at the end of the day, I just won't have as good of an idea of what I'm up too."

"But if you use up too much power, whichever one of you is the 'original' might dispel the other you," Jazz shot back. "That's happened once or twice as I recall."

"I wasn't expecting them to make a 'Best Couple' competition out of that fight," Danny replied, grimacing at the memory with so many of his foes. "And that was more of a danger to my secret identity than anything else."

"But my point remains," Jazz pressed forward. "Nothing too strenuous for a week, until you've recovered some energy."

"Fine," Danny sighed. "Maybe I can figure out way my Impedimentia makes things hover and then shoot forward." His shoulder twinged. "Ow. I'm going to get that blonde jerk for this."

"Here," Sam said, tongue sticking out of the corner of her lip as she gently pushed Danny forward a bit. "Maybe this will help." She began to gently knead his back.

Danny went red as a tomato, while Tucker and Jazz sniggered.

* * *

"Please?" Harry asked. "Won't you tell me? Ven Flatus!"

The fist of wind hit the ball of goey ectopasm and sent it back into the halfa's face.

"Ack!" Danny flailed about, wiping the goo out of his eyes. "You're asking me to spill these secrets as you're pelting me with spells?"

"Of course," Harry replied. "Depulso!"

Phantom was sent flying back by the banishing spell. He managed to catch himself before hitting the wall and retaliated with a small spark. Harry dodged and shot a Stunner which Phantom deflected.

"I know you're not at the top of your game tonight," Harry continued. "Aqua Flatus!"

A globe of water half-heartedly sailed across the room. Phantom lazy sidestepped it and watched as it pathetically splashed over the wall.

"Having trouble with that spell still?" Phantom asked. "And how do you know what the top of my game is? We've done this once before." He used some cryogensis to create a pair of snow balls.

"Depulso! Imepdimentia!" Harry shouted, stopping both snowballs. "I've seen some of your fights. Professor Binns has had a couple of classes on you. He somehow managed to bring in muggle videos and a TV."

"What does he teach?" Danny asked. He soared forward, preparing to land a mock blow on the boy-who-lived. He swung at real combat speeds, without pulling the punch any, but turned his fist and arm intangible.

"History of Magic and Modern Magical History," Harry replied, throwing himself out of the way. He still wasn't used to Phantom's speed, the blow would have clipped him and taken him out of the fight had it been for real. "It depends on the day."

"Doesn't it work that way with most teachers?" The halfa asked, continuing his physical assault.

"Ven Flatus!" Harry knocked him away with a whirlwind bullet. "Yes, but he really can't teach one course or the other on any given day. You see he's a halfa; a spirit who's more than one type." He added the explanation when he caught Phantom's strange expression. "He's a shade half the time, when he teaches History of Magic, and some sort of knowledge spirit the other half, when he teaches Modern Magical History. History of Magic is the most boring class in the curriculum because of him, but Modern Magical History is one of the most engaging also because of him."

"So half the time he's stuck in the past," Danny said as he escaped the whirlwind, "and the other half he's normal."

"Pretty much," Harry shrugged, before dodging another ball of ectoplasm. "Although he can change forms at will if he's excited enough. Do you know if you'll be staying at Hogwarts at all?"

"It's pretty likely," Danny confirmed. He held forth one hand and called forth a hail of mushy ice pellets. Harry rolled out of the way and leveled his wand at the spirit.

"Ven Flatus!" He made a slashing motion with his wand and an invisible crescent of bruising air flew forth. Danny called up a shield and was surprised when he felt it shudder. The crescent was deflected upwards, smashing into the ceiling and leaving a gash. "He'll probably start gushing over you then."

"You're pretty good with this spell," Danny told the wizard boy. "Didn't you just learn it?"

"Two days ago," Harry replied proudly. He face then fell right after. "That's what makes the water blasting spell all the more frustrating. Why can I get the wind one, but not the water one?"

"Maybe you're just better with wind?" Danny suggested.

"Maybe," Harry replied. "I"m an excellent Quidditch player after all. Hmm..." That gave him an idea for a spell he'd have to work on. He'd have to talk it over with Hermione in the morning. "But you still haven't said anything about not being at the top of your game today!"

"Well, I will admit to seeing combat, but only because you could probably piece that together by yourself," Phantom confessed. "And I will admit to being electrocuted, smashed into the ground, and hit through a couple of trees. The last one done by a blonde haired jerk."

"Lucious Malfoy," Harry said sagely. "He once let a basilisk loose in the school."

"What's a basilisk?" Danny asked.

"Giant venomous snake that can kill you with it's eyes if you look right into them," Harry answered, "or petrify you if you look into them indirectly."

"And he let that loose in a castle full of children?" Phantom's eyes flashed.

"Well, in his defense, he didn't exactly know what he was unleashing," Harry replied. "But he was hoping it would kill some muggleborns and give him the chance to kick Dumbledore out. Nearly worked if it hadn't been for a phoneix and a house elf."

"That sounds like quite a story," said Danny. "Care to tell it?"

"Sure," Harry replied. "Stupify!"

Danny put his hands together and summoned his reflective shield. The spell bounced right off and Harry was forced to duck to avoid being knocked out by his own spell.

"Well it started back in Diagon Alley-" Harry told the story while sparing with Phantom, who occasionally interrupted with a question or comment. If one was merely listening to their conversation it would have been hard to tell that they were fighting.

"It sounds more like it was thanks to you that Lucious's plan didn't work," Danny said when Harry had finished his story.

"I did a little," Harry admitted. "But in the end Fawkes did most of the heavy lifting."

"You stabbed the thing in the freaking mouth," Danny shot back. "And you found that stupid chamber in the first place."

"I'm pretty sure Dumbledore actually knew where it was," Harry replied. "He just didn't know how to open it. I mean, without Parseltounge it's supposed to be impossible to get into."

"Then why didn't he try block it up or anything?"

"It was blocked, in a manner of speaking" Harry replied. "I don't know all the details, but a giant snake moving through the plumbing still seems sort of far fetched."

"Well, whatever," Phantom said. "You're still selling yourself short. I mean, most people would be bragging about an accomplishment like that."

"I'm proud that I was able to save Ginny," Harry replied. "But as I said I didn't do that much. I probably did more in my first year, stopping Quirell from getting the Philosopher's Stone-"

"I'm betting there's another story there."

"-or even in my third year, where I had to save Sirius from an army of Dementors," Harry continued.

"And another story,' Danny rolled his eyes. "You really seem to be selling yourself short here."

"I haven't mentioned those events before," Harry said, puzzled. "What do you mean I'm selling myself short."

"Well, with the public opinion of the wizarding world against you like it is, after doing all that, I'd have guessed that you'd be carrying yourself differently," Phantom answered. "More... mayrty?"

"Is that even a world?"

"No clue," Danny said. "But still, you'd think you'd be acting differently."

"Like you're one to criticize," Harry shot back. "Mr, 'I Save Towns on a Weekly Basis', Mr 'I Beat a Bloody God Once'."

"Hey I only managed to do the Pariah Dark thing with the help of my enemies and the Fenton's Ecto-Skeleton," Danny protested. "And I've had some help behind the scenes with protecting the town."

"Still, beating a god, and keeping the place with the most spiritual activity on Earth safe," Harry returned. "If you're complaining about me selling myself short somehow, then you're a hypocrite."

Harry yawned.

"Well, I should be off to bed," the dark haired boy told the white haired one. "Thanks for the match. Same place, same time tomorrow?"

"Sure why not?" Danny suppressed a yawn of his own. He turned intangible and flew through the floor. He soared into his bed, reverted to his human form, and nearly fell asleep before his head settled into to his pillow.

* * *

AN: Sorry about the delay. I've had to balance projects, homework, essays, and then writer's block. Hopefully I should get back to my usual informal update schedule.


	12. Chapter 12

The land was scorched and scarred, pockmarked with craters. Wisps and columns of smoke rose from the ruined earth, smoldering grass or the leftovers of magical fires. It had once been a green pasture with gentle hills; now it was nothing more than a flat lifeless land with the only elevation coming from mounds of dirt at the ends of furrows.

In one particularly large crater lay Danny Phantom, his entire body throbbing in pain, lying on his back and staring at the sky.

Sirius poked his head over the edge of the cater.

"Good work mate," the animagus said to the spirit. "We finally got another one to look at."

Danny groaned.

"When you guys described me as a great offensive asset, were you referring to my ability to stand being blasted repeatedly?" He asked the wizard darkly, with a glare.

"Course. It's very useful to self repairing decoy to take the hits for us," Sirius joked.

"I hate you so much."

* * *

"Where are they doing all of that fighting?" Hermione asked as she, Ron, and Harry watched members of the Order of the Phoenix leave after the debriefing. "I mean even with the Ministry's censorship of the _Prophet _we should still hear about disturbances at least. Which means it's not happening in Britain, but Britain has usually been Voldemort's-"

Ron winced.

"-area of interest," Hermione continued, rolling her eyes at Ron's reaction. "So what is he after elsewhere? Considering this fights are a recent development it's not necessarily connected to the weapon he's after, but what else is he up to?"

"Please be suicide, please be suicide, please be suicide," Harry muttered, crossing his fingers.

"I doubt it," Ron replied. "It could just be positioning, making sure he's got his supply lines covered and his allies protected. I mean the Order can't actually stop them from receiving the material they need legally, but it's cheaper and faster to get it illegally. Plus if they've got bases near dementor colonies, werewolf groups, and his other allies, he can organize them better. The Order could just be driving them away from those places."

"What we really need to find out is where they've been going," Hermione said.

"I don't suppose you could just ask Phantom," Ron suggested, sighing.

"No, as I've said before he's pretty tight lipped," Harry replied. Over the last two weeks that he had been having his nightly sparring sessions with the allied spirit he hadn't been able to get a single bit of information out of him. "Maybe we could get the Americans to give it a try, Jazz or Danny might know a better method."

There was a loud crack and Fred and George appeared behind them.

"If you want-" Fred began. George opened his mouth to continue, but closed it when he saw that Harry already had his wand trained on him.

"-we could take over trying to weasel things out of Jazz for you," Fred continued awkwardly. He paused, looking over at George, trying to figure out some way of continuing their usual routine without finishing each other's sentences.

Harry gave them a dry look.

"Picked up our conversation on the old Extendable Ears, did we?" Harry said to the red headed twins. "And I'm sure that your offer to try and get information out of Jazz is purely altruistic and in no way an excuse to spend more time with her."

"Alright you got us," Fred admitted.

"But can you blame us," George asked. "That bird is fine!"

"Don't let any of the Fentons catch you talking about her like that," Hermione advised. "They might decide to use the two of you as test subjects."

"We know better than that," George replied. "But we're curious about what the Order's up to as well."

"Tucker's bug thingie has been able to pick up something about magic circles," Fred added. "But we've got no context, nothing to work on."

"Sam might be a better angle," Hermione said. "From what I've read between the lines, she and Phantom are a bit closer than they appear. Same goes for Tucker as far as I can tell."

"It makes sense," Harry said. "If Phantom was created by Danny Fenton somehow then he would have a connection with his best friend and the girl he likes. Speaking of which, have we found a safe closet to lock the two in yet so they'll just snog and be done with it?"

"Pretty sure there's one on the third floor," Ron answered. "But isn't it overkill-"

"Do you want to put up with their behavior for Merlin knows how long?" Harry asked. He received no answer. "That's what I thought."

"As entertaining as your matchmaking plans are," Hermione spoke up, "The preliminary book lists are supposed to arrive today."

"Why preliminary?" Ron asked.

"I'm guessing it's because Dumbledore's having a hard time finding a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Hermione answered. "Most of us will probably have to get the book via mail order."

"He can't have much time to be searching, with the war on Voldemort going on. Maybe he should get some more help for the war, you know, someone with experience fighting Voldemort, and then he'd have plenty of time to find a new professor," Harry said, a little bitterly.

Ron and Hermione rolled their eyes.

"So when do you think-" Hermione began before she was interrupted by Mrs. Weasely's voice.

"Everyone!" she called out, "your letters have arrived."

Fred and George vanished with a crack. Harry, Hermione, and Ron all hurried downstairs.

Mrs. Weasely was waiting in the kitchen with a handful of envelopes . The Fenton children and Tucker were already there, Sam and Danny opening their Hogwarts letters. Fred and George had already queued up in front of Mrs. Weasely to get their letters.

"I thought those two already went to Diagon Alley," Ron stated.

"To get all the earlier spell books and wands," Hermione replied. "Honestly Ron."

Harry tuned the two of them out. He was pretty sure Ron acted like that just to annoy her. The trio joined the queue. Tucker gave them a strange look, wondering why they formed an orderly line instead of crowding around, but Harry ignored him. The foreigner would never be able to understand the joy of queuing.

Everyone received their letters. Harry tore his open, glancing over the book list. Nothing stood out at the time, other than the lack of a DADA book.

"Is that-" Fred began.

"-what I think it is?" George finished.

Harry rolled his eyes and drew his wand. And then stopped when he saw what they were focused on.

Ron was staring dumbly at a shiny silver badge in his hand. Harry stared dumbly at the badge in his hand. Molly stared dumbly at the badge in his hand. Hermione, a badge in her own hand, stared dumbly at the badge in his hand.

Sam, Danny, and Tucker stared dumbly at the people staring dumbly at the badge in Ron's hand.

"I don't get it," spoke Danny.

"Ronald's a prefect..." Mrs. Weasely said disbelievingly.

"What's a prefect?" Danny asked.

"A fancy hall monitor," Sam informed him.

"What's the big deal then?" Danny inquired.

"A fancy hall monitor with extra privileges and some actual authority over other students," Sam continued.

"That doesn't sound like a good idea. I mean in general," the American boy said hastily to avoid offending Ron. "Not just in your case."

"Oh, but it is such a good idea-" Fred began.

"- in this case," George continued for him, grinning. "After all, our own little brother, a pre- Ow!"

"I'm going to keep doing this until you two quit that," Harry said, lowering his wand. He thought for a moment. "But yeah, in the end, better you than me mate. I wouldn't want to have to try and discipline these two. Merlin's pants, McGonagall or Dumbledore must really hate you."

He was lying of course, but if he turned it into a joke it didn't hurt so much. He had forgotten until now that two members of his year would become prefects, but he had always assumed that it would be him and Hermione. It had never even occurred to Harry that Ron might be the prefect instead.

But he bit down on the hurtful words on his tongue and replaced them with jest. Joke and joke and never let the darkness out of his heart.

"Aren't you already disciplining them?" Tucker asked. "What with shooting them in the wrist every time they do their twin thing?"

"Not the same thing at all," Harry replied. He thought for a moment. "As long as you guys are here, do you need any help with your Defense Against the Dark Arts work?"

Danny's expression was briefly one of total panic.

Him versus Harry while using ghost powers? Fun light sparring.

Him versus Harry without ghost powers? Brutal brutal beatdown.

But Harry was a niceish guy. He wouldn't purposefully go hard on them... would he?

* * *

"No, not stupidify, it's Stupefy!" Harry corrected Danny, casually flicking the malformed spell away with his wand. "Come on, try again. Take your time for now, we can work on speed casting later."

It could have been worse. Harry was helpful, corrected without berating, walked them through the steps, and answered their questions thoroughly.

On the other hand he had Sam practice using stunners on Danny, the evil british sadist.

It made sense of course, Harry was the only one who knew Eneverate, and once he was sure that their stunners weren't going to blow up, he quit blocking them and had them practice on one another.

Since no one was sure what Danny's stunners would do Harry had him still doing target practice.

"Stu-pe-fy," Harry said slowly, going through the wand motions. A jet of red light hit the ceiling. "See."

"Why are there burn marks on the ceiling?" Sam asked, looking upwards.

"Practicing elemental spells," Harry replied. "They're usually not covered in class, but I could show you two some if you guys get the other stuff down. Though I only really have one down."

That was true Danny reflected. The boy-who-lived was getting more and more proficient with the wind blasting spell, but he had barely improved with his water blasting spell. And his fire blasting spell fluctuated wildly, sometimes no more than a spark, and sometimes a rather dangerous amount. Good thing they had started warding the walls before their sparring.

"Anyway, Danny, try again," Harry instructed, taking a dueling stance.

"Stupefy!" Danny shouted, repeating Harry's wand motions. A robin shot out of his wand. Everyone watched bemused as it decided to land in Harry's hair.

Danny looked down at his wand.

"I swear this thing is defective," Danny moaned.

"I heard it was an experimental one," Harry replied. He gently took the bird off of his head and put it on his shoulder. "But you've got the color right finally. Anyway, it's about time Sam had another turn. Stun him please."

"I hate-"

"Stupefy!" Danny's eyes closed and he fell over. Sam caught him and grabbed him under his arms. His head rolled back and fell against her collarbone.

Harry rolled his eyes, mentally gagged, and didn't bother watching the typical reaction. He needed to step up the time table on the closet plan pronto.

* * *

Harry had Occlumency lessons later that day. He and Snape went up to the room that people were starting to call the Practice Room and prepared for another hour of mental warfare.

As soon as Harry closed the door, but before he could turn around, Snape drew his wand.

"Legilimens!" The room swam before Harry's eyes. Harry instantly fought back, pitting his will against Snape's magic. Memories slowly swam past his vision, the slow pace the only measure of his improvement. A shiny badge flitted before his eyes and there was surge of dark poisonous anger. Harry's guard broke and Snape's assault gained speed.

"Protego!" Harry threw all of his energy into drawing his wand and casting the shield charm. Snape cut off his own spell to avoid being caught by the rebound.

"Still lack the discipline to block Legilimency with your mind alone?" Snape sneered. "Are you even trying?"

His dark eyes narrowed.

"Or maybe it was that last memory, the one with the prefect badge?" Snape's eyes glittered maliciously. "Does the great Harry Potter feel cheated?"

"No," Harry shouted back angrily, taking one step forward, wand pointing at Snape. His green eyes looked down at the hand holding the wand and noticed that his knuckles were white. Harry took a step back. His eyes closed and he took in a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

"Yeah, I guess in a sense," he admitted, earning a start of surprise from Snape. "I never really thought about it, but I guess I always expected that I would be the prefect. It's strange though, I don't get why I'm angry at Ron or why I'm upset about it."

Harry sat down and leaned back against the wall. Snape simply watched.

"I mean I don't think I'd be upset about it if it had been given to someone else in my year," Harry continued. "I feel like I just wouldn't have cared then. But with Ron it's like I'm being specifically told I don't deserve it."

Harry groaned.

"It's stupid I know. Ron's a fine candidate for it. I know _you _wouldn't agree, but he's a good bloke."

"His marks would indicate otherwise when it comes to suitability for post," Snape told the student.

"He just doesn't really care about marks," Harry rebutted. He focused on calming down, speaking words that weren't angry. "I think he doesn't believe he can compare to his older siblings or Hermione for that matter, so he just gives up there and in some other places as well. But's he's got a good heart and he's loyal. I mean he's stuck with me most of the time and he's a normal guy. He's had a normal childhood and a loving family. He doesn't have any reason to stick around a guy who's got an insane dark lord hunting him, who attracts trouble each year like it's nobodies business. Except for the occasional spat he's always had my back and what does he get in return? Being constantly outshone, outdone, put in danger, hurt, and all sorts of nasty business. He sticks around when it's stupid to out of pure loyalty." Harry smiled bitterly.

He felt odd, spilling his feelings to his least favorite teacher, but then again Snape was about to go through them anyway. It felt good, peaceful, a bit like the meditation exercises that Lupin had given them along with some minor martial arts instruction during their third year. Not that anyone progressed very far on them or even remembered most of the lessons. The constantly changing DADA teachers made it difficult to impart any long term skills to the students.

"I guess what I'm feeling now is just a taste of what's he's got to put up with all the time," finished Harry.

"You mentioned that he gets nothing out of associating with you," said Snape. "But what do you get from associating with him? If you quite spending time with the red haired sample of mediocrity then your marks would show some minor improvement. And I believe you need every bit you can take. You could spend more time working rather than slacking off with him, something that would increase your chances of survival. As for his accompanying you on your little attention seeking jaunts, you could find a more valuable meat shield to take with you, someone who can provide extra benefits."

"Because friendships not about what you can do for each other," Harry replied, his emotions settling down. His gaze became resolute as it traveled upwards to Snape's face. Snapes' dark eyes were looking elsewhere.

"Spare me that drivel, I hear enough of that from the Headmaster," Snape muttered. "If that is what friendship is, then it is a luxury that you can not afford in your situation."

"I can tell you must have had a lot of friends," Harry rolled his eyes.

Snape declined his head, greasy hair falling in front of his face, and smiled. It was not a kind or happy smile. It was usually a smile that happened in the vicinity of a great deal of blood outside of a body.

"I had one," the Potion's Master said to his student. "And they would have been better off never meeting me. But enough of this, back to the lesson."

He flicked his wand and with one motion cast a Full-Body Bind on Harry, made him twitch his hand to let go of his wand, and then lifted him up into the air. Harry's expression didn't even have time to change.

"Now, with your mind alone Potter! Legilimens!" Harry gathered his will before Snape cast the spell and met the intrusion head on. He forced himself to keep calm, to focus on nothing other than fighting Snape's invasion.

The room stayed mostly clear, with only the edges of his vision becoming blurry. In his mind's eye he could see the memory that Snape was currently trying to traverse. It was the memory his his thirteenth birthday, when he had received all the owls while doing his summer homework.

He focused and changed the image in his head to one of Snape being used as a sponge by the giant squid, before being hurled into the air and coming down with a messy splat on a rather large rock. He relaxed his defenses just enough to let the Potions Master see it.

Harry could have sworn he heard the man chuckle. But he heard no sign of any mirth when the man replied.

"At last you show some basic competency," Severus told his pupil. "Now you will have to put more effort into practicing to maintain this level, more than your current obviously meager times thus far. And then we can start moving on to developing stronger shields and more advanced defenses. I believe we have done enough for today. Goodbye Potter."

Without a word he let Harry fall to the ground and walked out.

Harry glared after his retreating back. The least he could have done was given him a hand up. The dark haired boy retrieved his wand.

Harry's earlier musings had given him a new idea, a new approach to learning Occulemency. It would be extra work, but it would mean spending less time in Snape's presence. He would go ask Lupin for some meditation lessons. Harry checked his watch, then remembered that it hadn't worked since the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament.

Lupin occasionally stopped over for tea and he might be around the house at the current time. Harry waited a minute to ensure that he wouldn't run into Snape again, and then went downstairs towards the kitchen. He was in luck, the former professor in second hand robes was sitting at the table with Mrs. Weasley, McGononagall, Mrs. Fenton, Shacklebolt, Tonks, and Lupin.

"Wotcher Harry," Tonks said to him when he came in. "Whatcha want?"

"I was hoping to ask Professor Lupin something," Harry answered.

"No need to call me that, I resigned, remember?" The werewolf replied.

"And got replace with a Death Eater, I remember," Harry responded. "But I was hoping to ask for some extra lessons."

"For DADA? You seem to be doing fine with self study from what I hear."

"No sir, actually it's got to do with my Occulmency lessons. I was hoping you could teach me a bit more about meditation."

Lupin took a sip of his tea before answering.

"While I can give you a few pointers, I'm not an expert or anything," the cursed wizard responded. "I told you and the rest of your year most of what I knew when I was teaching. I visited the magical Buddhist monasteries only briefly. It used to be a thing for people with my condition to join or learn at those communities to help to control their condition. But that tradition has pretty much died out since the invention of the Wolfsbane Potion, so I didn't stick around very long or learn that much."

"I'll take anything you can teach me," Harry replied. "I just need help with training my mind for Occulmency."

"Very well, I can share a few tips I guess. When do you have time for a lesson?"

"Most times are good sir. Whatever time works for you."

"Alright, I'll find some free time before the start of term," Lupin replied.

"Thank you sir," Harry responded.

* * *

The days passed. Harry spent time with Ron and Hermione, occasionally helped Sam and Danny with their studies, practiced his advanced DADA material, sparred with Phantom and tried to figure out what was going on with the second war. He gained some minor amount of control with the fire blasting curse, minor progress with the water blasting curse, and continued to excel at the wind blasting curse. He had also started to consult with Hermione on his idea for a new spell.

"What you're suggesting is infeasible," Hermione told him after hearing his idea. "At least at our current skill level. Spell creation vs spell adaptation or spell discovery is a very complex and difficult task. And there's what your trying to do itself. Manipulating the air or wind to allow you to fly is difficult, you have to deal with the physics and the execution, neither of which are a walk in the park. Really you should just figure out how to do it wandlessly and then start practicing using your wand to direct the energies. But you can get the same sort of functionality out of a broom or other flying vehicle, which is why most wizards don't bother researching self flight spells."

"Yeah, but..." Harry shrugged. "It's not the same as flying yourself."

Hermione threw up her hands.

"I can't stop you," she told him. "Just make sure not to hurt yourself."

During his spars with Phantom, the spirit hero started to talk about the war a little bit more.

"Dumbledore said it was alright to talk about some of this stuff now," the halfa told the boy-who-was-listening. "So don't be surprised if Mrs. Weasely, or Remus, or Sirius talk about it too."

"So what can you tell me?" Harry was practically jumping for joy at this point.

"We've been going around Europe destroying or capturing these weird circles with a bunch of strange writing on them," Phantom told the wizarding child. "Don't know what they're supposed to do or how many of them there are. It really sucks, especially since I'm the one who usually gets beaten up for them."

Harry had promptly shared that bit of intel with the Weasely children and Hermione.

"That's no help at all," Hermione had told the group. "Magic circles can be used for many things."

"Did he tell you where specifically they went?" Ron probed Harry. "That could be more important."

"He said that was still classified or something," Harry responded. "Fred, George, how is that thing your working on with Tucker?"

"The bug thing?" asked Fred.

"We're still working on keeping inconspicuous," George answered.

Harry glared. They weren't finishing each other's sentences, but it was still annoying.

"Don't put too much hope into it, Tucker says the Fenton's know how to look for for muggle spying things," George continued.

"So we'll probably only get to hear one or two meetings before its discovered or we have to destroy it," Fred added.

"It's better than what we've currently got," Harry said, crossing his arms. "Any luck with Jazz. Wait, let me rephrase that."

The twins had made no progress with the eldest Fenton child but had great hopes for their future efforts. Harry just rolled his eyes.

He picked up some tips on meditation from Professor Lupin and a couple of interesting facts about Buddhist spells. They were radically different from the ones he was familiar with and required incredible amounts of focus to perform. Harry started to practice meditation alongside Occulmency and managed to improve some more. Snape informed him that he would have to continue the lessons during the start of term, but hopefully neither of them would have to put up with that for long.

The trio, the twins, and Ginny almost managed to lock Sam and Danny together in the closet but were accidently foiled by Tucker and Jazz, who were attempting a similar ploy. The two groups joined forces after that and began to think up a new plan. Hopefully they would have the situation resolved before everyone left for Hogwarts and wouldn't have to spend all their time around the two gagging.

On Danny's end there were more battles, but nothing strenuous. He took beatings like usual, but nothing to bad. It was nowhere near as bad as the early days in the Order when he had to constantly have a duplicate active.

"It's nice to see that you are adjusting," Dumbledore had told him during another private meeting. "Your seem to be almost _glowing_."

"Hey, leave the bad jokes to me," Danny protested. "So, why'd you want to see me."

"Mostly to check up on you," Albus told the green eyed ghost. "You've been with the Order with a couple months. Any concerns you'd like to bring up?"

"No, not really." Danny hadn't seen any obvious flaws. Wait, that wasn't true. "Wait, actually, Harry's been wondering why you've been ignoring him."

Albus looked slightly taken aback and for an instant the twinkle in his eye vanished. The old wizard sighed.

"I have not been," the silver bearded wizard said to the young halfa. "I simply haven't been talking with him. It has to do with a topic we touched on last time we met here."

"Something about weird dreams."

"Yes. I have reason to worry that Voldemort might be able to access Harry when the natural defenses of his mind are lowest, when he sleeps," Dumbledore explained. "Other times as well, but it would be easiest to invade his dreams. Harry has made use of this connection accidently before, mostly while he was sleeping. If Voldemort is not already aware of it, he soon will be. I was extremely please to hear that Harry had asked for Occulmency lessons from Snape of his own free will, it meant I was not forced to reveal that I was aware that the link was two way, and if Voldemort is not yet aware or ready to reveal he is aware, then he will not order Snape to sabotage the lessons."

"Does it really matter if he tells Snape to do that?" Danny asked.

"It does!" Dumbledore answered, leaning forward, his eyes going sharp. "Severus has to walk a fine line. He is on our side, but he can't reveal it. He is a trusted member of Voldemort's inner circle and can only remain one so long as our action to not betray knowledge of things only he could have known. And he could slow Harry's lessons, possibly temporarily weaken his mental defenses if he decides it is worth it, if Voldemort only gains a temporary advantage that we can counteract. I trust Snape to be on our side and to try and make the best decisions, but I do not wish to put him in that place."

"But, let us return to our earlier topic," the old wizard continued. "Voldemort may occasionally peek into Harry's mind, which is why I'd like you check in on him once and awhile at night. And as to why I have not been talking to him, it is simple. If Voldemort has any indication that we have ever been more than headmaster and student, then he may use Harry to strike at me, or use him as a shield somehow."

"When you say more than headmaster and student..." Danny began.

"Nothing inappropriate," Dumbledore cut him off. "Closer to mentor and pupil, or something similar."

"So I shouldn't tell him that you've asked about him?" Phantom asked.

Dumbledore thought it over for half an instant, too fast for Danny to even realize that the old wizard was thinking it over.

On one hand, telling Harry would reassure the boy in the current dark times. Considering all that he had been through, Voldemort would not think it odd for him to occasionally inquire after the well-being of one of his students.

_And it would bind Harry to him even more; increase his loyalty, make him more willing to do the orders that his headmaster gives him. _

No! Then maybe it would be best to instruct Phantom not to tell Harry that he was inquiring after him. Stick with the original plan for now.

"Do not inform him," Dumbledore told the spirit. "There is no reason to reveal our hand to Tom."

"Who?"

"Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort's original name," Albus informed Danny.

"Really, he's a Tom?" Danny grinned. "How does he react to being called Tommy boy? Or the Tomster? Or-"

"I do not believe any have called him such. Though you are welcome to of course," Dumbledore said grinning, the twinkle in his eyes fully restored. "Anyway, the term will be starting soon and Harry will be returning to school. Would you consider staying at Hogwarts during that time?"

Danny shrugged. He was already headed there after all.

"Sure, as long as you don't make me attend classes."

"I wouldn't dream of it dear boy," Dumbledore said grinning. "Wouldn't dream of it."

After all Binns was the one who wanted to have the spirit boy occasionally come to class.

* * *

AN: Sorry about the wait, I swear I get all these ideas for these chapters and then they don't want to be written down.

Almost time to go to Hogwarts and deal with Umbridge. The only character that I will have to deal with in my fanfic career that falls below what I call the "Umbridge Limit" or "Umbridge Law". The definition of those terms is: The only characters that should be bashed are those who are so horrible that they are impossible to truly bash. I generally hate bashing, it shows an immature understanding of the story, lack of emotional control and maturity on behalf of the writer, disrespect towards the other characters, and usually leads to bad writing, implausible situations, and is indicative of other problems like sueism or author avatarism. Unless that character is someone as bad as Umbridge, in which case the bashing is pretty much cannon.

That being said, I will be struggling not to give her a horrible death ten seconds after her introduction. Honestly, anytime I read or watch the Order of the Phoenix I have to occasionally skip to the scene where she gets what's coming. Future chapters will either be fun or give me an ulcer.

Read, review, and tell me what I did wrong.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Danny Phantom.

"And this," Binns said, sweeping his arm towards a door, "is where the registry of all Hogwarts students, past, present, and future, is kept."

Danny, who had been forcing himself to maintain an expression of polite interest, perked up at the mention of this.

"What do you mean 'all future'?" The young halfa asked the older halfa. "How do you know which students will enroll?"

"Ah," Binns said, smiling, tapping his nose. The History of Magic professor was currently in spirit mode rather than shade mode. In his current form he gave off the same sort of glow that Danny and the other spirits that he had encountered had. He was dressed in modern looking ghostly t-shirt and jeans. However, being a spirit, they couldn't be normal. No, they had to be ludicrous in some manner. The jeans were purple and glowing, and the shirt was a red color that clashed horribly with the pants.

Professor Binns had ambushed Danny as the young halfa was leaving the headmaster's office. He had been practically bouncing up and down in anticipation of meeting such an important figure in modern magical history. Phantom had no chance to defend himself; the professor had zoomed to right in front of him and grabbed his hand, pumping it up and down, gushing about the honor of meeting him.

There had been a rapid fire barrage of questions from the professor, too many for Danny to even consider beginning to answer. Binns had continued babbling almost ignoring Danny's silence, and then dragged his fellow spirit on comprehensive tour of the castle and its history. Danny went along with it so he could avoid alienating a future teacher. Up until the current point most of what he had seen had been uninteresting, dorm locations, bathrooms, Hospital Wing, and other such mundane fixtures.

This however, was slight different.

"It's a relatively recent addition," Binns informed Phantom. "After the institution of the Statute of Secrecy and the growth of the human population after the start of the, ah, what was the muggle term... Industrial Revolution I believe it was called, in order to recruit muggle-borns or orphaned half-bloods a system to detect magical potential in children was created. It can monitor the whole of the British Isles, finding every magical child, muggle born or otherwise."

"How does it work?" Danny asked, a bit curious.

"That's a secret," Professor Binns replied. "There are several... unsavory types who would love the ability to detect the magical potential of children. The Ministry makes do with detecting magic use around wands, or in known households. Other countries have their own methods, usually not as accurate."

"What sort of unsavory types?"

"I can imagine that Voldemort-" A spirit or a shade, especially one interested in history, would have little reason to avoid saying the name of the Phoenix Slaying Lord, Modern Terror of Britain, the Pure Lord of Darkness. "-would like to exterminate them before they can be accepted to Hogwarts. He did use to publicly execute captured muggle born children whenever he could manage during the last war. This was actually the staff's greatest fear three years ago, when the Chamber of Secrets opened, and Dumbledore was forced out of office. The fear was that Mr. Malfoy would use his influence to gain access to the registry and start secretly hunting the poor children. Luckily Dumbledore returned before any damage could be done."

"Really? Killing kids?" Danny frowned. He'd encountered beings that were focused on destruction before, but they had always been omnicidal. There was something... refreshing about them and their equal treatment of everyone that made them a bit hard to really hate.

(Jazz had done some psycho-babble when Danny had talked about this sort of thing with her; mentioning everything from earlier Freudian and Jungian theory, to cognitive and gestalt interpretations, and even various schools of ethical thought. Danny understood absolutely none of it and had left with his head spinning.)

Someone deliberately targeting kids for a political agenda (rather than to eat them or something like that, something more understandable to the halfa) left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Yes, there are too many muggle borns youth scattered around the country to guard them all," Binns went on. "But rest assured, now that Malfoy's been removed from the board of governors there's no way Dumbledore could be driven out of the school this year."

"Good," Danny replied. "Well, that's always nice to hear."

"As long as we're stopped, let's discuss a couple of things about you," Binns moved on. "What sort of halfa are you?"

"Isn't that rather private information?" Danny asked, worriedly. He hadn't had too much casual social interaction with other spirits before so he didn't know how to appropriately respond. From what he had gathered from the wizards, spirits tended to be secretive, but was that only with wizards or was type an exception, or was Binns just rude?

"About types?" Binns replied. "I heard from the ghosts that work more closely with Dumbledore's group that you were young and not very knowledgeable, but this is worse than I thought."

"Hey!" Danny protested. "I don't talk to too many other spirits, most of the time I'm just fighting them. The only one I really spend any time with is Frostbite and we usually are talking about crises or powers at the time."

"Yes, I have heard about your relationship with the leader of the Far Frozen," Binns stated. "But really, asking about another spirit's type is a bit like asking a human about the exact color of their hair."

"It's a bit more personal than that," Danny said a bit defensively.

Binns found that reaction interesting. He had originally guessed that Phantom was simply a sentient spirit with maybe a guardian nature, but that wasn't necessarily true, given his recent reactions. And why was he so secretive about it, it would come out eventually, there simply wasn't anyway to hide it...

Unless it had something to do with his strange connection to Danny Fenton that he had heard the ghosts that had business with the Order gossip about. Was he protecting the human boy? In that case it was best to simply let the subject drop.

They continued talking for a while, Binns explaining things about the castle, its history, and recent events. He also pestered the younger halfa about some of the events of his life. The older halfa was also secretly plotting into finding someway to force the younger into helping him with some of his classes.

Danny forced himself to be polite, while secretly wishing that he was out in the field, getting pummeled by Death Eaters.

* * *

Time passed, as it will always do until the end of all things, and the Hogwarts trip grew closer and closer. Snape spied and lied, Danny and Sam rested and learned, Harry and friends packed, Dumbledore planned, the Fentons invented, Jazz read, and the Order continued to gather its strength. Life at Grimmauld Place grew a little more hectic as the Order held more and more meetings to attempt to figure out Voldemort's plan involving the strange circles, and his other plan involving the prophecy.

And while all that was going on, Fred, George, Ginny, Harry, Hermione, Jazz, Ron, and Tucker all found time to plot to deal with a situation that was annoying them. Sam and Danny 'interactions', so to speak. It was no easy task to ensure that two wizards, with wands, could be locked in a closet they couldn't easily escape from and make it look like an accident. And to make sure that no outside interference, from either the adults or from Phantom, could get them out of there. Their plan had taken all of their social smarts, technological savvy magical expertise, chaotic creativity, and pranking experience, all driven by their increasing exasperation at the pair's behavior.

(Jazz and Tucker also focused on making it difficult for a halfa to get out)

The result was a work of art. Far too magnificent for any description (or cheap cop out) to do it justice. It was the sort of thing mad scientists and sorcerers laughed maniacally about.

The plan went into action, and Harry, from under his invisibility cloak, smirked as Sam tripped into Danny, sending them both tumbling into a closet, the door 'accidently' catching on their clothes and slamming shut.

"How long do we have to wait?" Fred voiced reached Harry through a muggle communication device provided by Tucker.

"Danny will get bored after ten minutes and after that we should only have to wait half an hour before we secretly unlock it," Jazz informed them electronically.

"Don't you mean retrieve them?" Ron asked.

"No. They'll be occupied," Jazz replied.

"What do you mean occupied?"

"Ron, put two and two together," Hermione chided her red-headed friend.

"What-? Oh, right. So what do we do until then?"

"You could try reading ahead in your textbooks," Hermione suggested, before their conversation devolved into their usual bickering. Harry rolled his eyes.

"I'll unlock it later," he told the others. "You guys are done for now. I'll inform you of the success of the plan later."

Unaware of the plotting and bickering outside the small enclosed space, Danny and Sam were trying to get out. Their efforts were impeded by the lack of space; there barely room for the two of them standing up, and even then they were constantly baning into cleaning supplies, shelves, and other inanimate occupants of the closet.

"Alohomora doesn't work and Mrs. Weasley would probably get mad at us if we broke down the door," Danny stated. "I suppose that I could make a duplicate, go invisible and intangible, and then rescue us..."

"Give it a try," Sam urged, staying back against a stack of boxes.

Danny focused and then there were two Dannys in the closet. One of him went ghost, invisible, and then intangible. He flew upward into the ceiling-

And promptly hit his head.

"Ow," he said. "It's not letting me through. I can't tell exactly what it is."

"Come back," Danny told himself. "We need to focus for a second."

The duplicate vanished with a pop. Danny closed his eyes and emptied his mind. The halfa focuses on his core, on the small amounts of energy he was absorbing from the environment. He could 'taste' the magic and other energies, but he couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on.

"I have no clue what's stopping me," Danny said. "It doesn't feel like a ward. I'm pretty sure I could blast our way out-"

"It always opened from the outside," Sam said. "So we don't need to do that. We just need wait for someone to walk by and then make some noise. Then they can let us out."

"Uh, okay," Danny complied, leaning against the door.

The two of them were quiet for a couple minutes before Danny started to fidget. His attention span wasn't much to brag about.

Of course, being in the confined space that they were in it meant that he brushed up against Sam.

"Sorry!" Danny, said, instantly flinching back. There wasn't a good light source in the closet, so no one could see his cheeks change color. Nor could anyone see Sam's cheeks change color.

"It's okay," Sam replied, rubbing her arm.

They went back to waiting for a bit, Danny holding himself perfectly still. But once again he grew bored. Once more he fidgeted and brushed up against Sam.

"Sorry!" He repeated, flinching again. But this time he bounced off a side wall, lost his balance, and in a convoluted series of clumsy events, ended up tripping himself and Sam.

There was a crash as they fell to the floor, almost knocking over some of the boxes.

Danny winced. Way to go hero, always had to make a mess of things...

And then he realized there was something on top of him. Or rather someone.

He opened his eyes and met Sam's violet ones. An electric thrill ran through him, one part fear, one part embarrassment, two parts excitement, and one part 'oh universe, please don't let me fuck up'. The feeling gathered in his stomach and chest, feeling curiously empty and yet lively, like he felt when he was invisible, intangible, and in flight, or fighting against a superior foe and winning. A sense of electric elation, dancing from nerve to nerve.

Both teenagers opened their mouths, and let out simultaneous 'ah's of awkward embarrassment. Their faces were close enough that they could make out each other's expressions in the dark.

Danny saw her lips, in that position, and thought how good it would feel to press his own lips against them, _like so..._

And then he realized what he had done. The halfa jerked his head back... right into the floor.

"Shit!" he swore in pain. The least the universe could have done was to have that mistake knock him out. Or kill him. Or maybe he would die of terminal embarrassment, because he was reaching new levels of 'oh please just let me slink away to some dark cave where I'll never have to see another human for the rest of my life' style embarrassment and shame.

If he hadn't had all the practice he had with controlling his powers he might have turned invisible and intangible on instinct. As it was, Danny was about to when he felt lips touch his own again, but this time it wasn't his fault.

There was some activity in the closet for a little while, some very fun, nice, and pleasurable activity. Nothing that went too far; both parties were inexperienced teenager after all.

Unfortunately for fun times, neither of them were ordinary teenagers.

Next time they broke off for air, Danny put a hand up.

"Look, we need to talk," he said to the girl sort of pinning him down.

"I guess," Sam admitted.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Danny said from his spot on the ground.

He was secretly involved in a war among wizards, a secret war at that. And even without that, he was the otherworldy guardian of the most haunted location on Earth. It was bad enough that they were friends, known to be friends among his enemies, which alone would enough to put her in horrible danger. But he had accepted that he couldn't drive them away two fights ago. He would simply have to do his best to protect her and Tucker. And he would have to do his best to keep his secret from the wizarding world.

But if they started going out, if their lives became more entangled... then what would his enemies do to her just to get him?

It was a fear that lurked in the dark recesses of his mind. A fear that threatened to make Danny lose control of himself if whenever he gave it conscious attention, forcing himself not to rush out of whatever he was doing and making sure that _they were alright. _Like when one is twenty miles away from home and struck with the sudden notion that they left the gas on, but much more extreme. Whenever the fear struck him, it was a chill worse than the depths of the Far Frozen, worse than the evil he had seen in the eyes of his possible future. Worse of all was the uncertainty. In some ways it made it arguably worse than those desperate seconds after he had sealed away his evil future. Though it could be easily argued that the ordeal with his future was a catalyst for the growth of the fear.

The point was that if he and Sam went out, his fear about his enemies coming for those close to his heart could come closer to be being realized.

To be fair Skulker probably wouldn't care too much, he just wanted to hunt him. Most of the other ghosts hated him, but preferred to go after him directly with their obsessions (or maybe natures as he was learning). The more human among them, the most dangerous, would be the ones he would have to worry about, and they would be the cruelest.

And, worst of all, there was Vlad, who might try to give him... _dating advice! _Danny shuddered internally at the thought.

But in all seriousness, even before the war, going out would increase the amount of danger she was in. But now-

"You know, as a true feminist I know that females can physically abuse males as well as the other way around," Sam growled. "And that, if I'm considering violence, I should pretend for a moment that our genders were reversed, would I still hit you? Would it be considered abusive? Would it be considered wrong? Would it still be worth it? Or I should ask myself if I'm hiding behind outdated gender values if I plan on striking you. So you should be aware of just how serious I am when I say, if you're about to say it's a bad idea for us to get together because it would put me in more danger," neatly summarizing Danny's thoughts, "I will sock you in the gut. Hard."

Danny closed his eyes and nodded fearfully.

"Yes, that was what-"

* * *

Harry winced as he heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh and Danny's grunt of pain.

"I think she's beating him up in there," he told the others via the communication device. "I'm calling off the-"

"Oh, give them a little time," Jazz advised him. "I was expecting something like this to happen. It just means that they're almost done."

"Oh," Harry replied.

"I don't get it," Ron spoke up. "Why would she hit him if she's sweet on him."

Most of the conspirators thought that Ron's cluelessness answered his own question. Most of them left the thought silent.

"Ron, you're an idiot with the emotional range of a tea cup," Hermione groaned, opting to give him the simpler explanation.

"What did I say?"

* * *

"Now do you understand me when I saw that what you're thinking is bullshit?" Sam asked, still on top of Danny, glaring down at the halfa.

"Yes, yes," the halfa wheezed. "Jeeze, you pack a mean punch. Maybe you should have gotten the powers instead of me."

Right, and then there was the reason why he hadn't just cut contact with them in the first place. It's not like they'd stand for it, as he had discovered. They worried about him as well. He would've expected the same reaction from Tucker if he had suggested to the tech geek that they stop being friends. Though Tucker's punch probably wouldn't have been as strong as Sam's. And they wouldn't have been making out before hand.

"That's a question for a different time. Don't forget, just being in the town puts us all in danger," Sam continued, her eyes firery. "Heck, just having been your friend is putting me at risk now because of the wizard Nazis. In fact, now that I've actually got some powers of my own, I might be in less danger then ever before. And even if I didn't have magic, I've fought plenty of baddies too."

For all the hero-ing he did, Sam and Tucker were right beside him, even if he didn't want them to be. It's not like Danny didn't know that they couldn't take care of themselves; at least he knew this on an intellectual level, even if the knowledge couldn't reach the part of him that spawned the terrible fear. And she raised some good points.

Besides, it was hard for the fear to last in the presence of those violet eyes when they were shining so resolutely. The fear would return when he was alone, or when they were in the field together... but that wasn't liable to happen anytime soon, not with the current war, not when she wasn't participating.

Maybe it wouldn't be a mistake, not if they started now, away from Amity Park...

Fear and affection warred within Danny. Fear lost. He smiled and looked up.

"Fine you win," he said.

"Of course," Sam said, smirking. "Now, if we are going to talk, it is going to be about how we break this to the others, if we do so. Or we can go back to what we were doing previously-"

"Yes, let's go make love, not war," Danny said, reaching up to pull himself so that their faces could meet.

Outside Harry heard a 'bonk', dual, ows, followed by some giggles. Then it was quiet again.

"I think we can unlock it now," the cloaked boy informed the others. "The operation is a success."

"Feel free to unlock it, but we probably won't see them again until dinner," Jazz informed him.

* * *

Jazz's prediction turned out to be accurate. The two weren't seen again until dinner. Over the next few days they didn't try to hide their new relationship, but they didn't go about announcing it either. Not that it mattered as everyone under the age of twenty, who resided in the old house, had been in on the plot to hurry up and get them together, and out of the older folks, the only two who cared, Jack and Maddie Fenton, were always a bit surprised to find out that they weren't going out already.

(Jazz kept smirking at Danny, almost making the halfa suspicious about the closet that magically locked itself and sealed him in there, but then he remembered he was in a magic house and she was just annoying like that.)

The days until the start of term continued to tick down. Harry practiced his spellwork, his meditation, and his Occlumency. By the time packing day rolled around he had finally gotten some control over the fire blasting spell, could do a quarter ways decent water blasting spell, and had pretty much mastered the wind blasting spell. Surprisingly his work on a wandless spell of wind flying was actually making progress. That was to say he could wandless create a small (very small) breeze on command. He'd borrowed a couple of books from Hermione on the subject of wandless spell creation and occasionally went to her for help with some of the calculations.

Reading the book Harry also found out why it was wrong to call what he was doing 'spell creation', or at least why it was wrong if you wanted to get technical. 'Spell creation' was creating things like the Stunning Spell and the like; things that could be done by any wizard who knew the incantation. Or spell discovery, which would be like how the Killing Curse was found, finding the incantation to produce the effect, rather than manufacturing both. Wandless magic, the sort that Harry was working on, didn't really fit into either of those categories, even if it was in essence a spell.

(Of course that led into what exactly spells were and how they were different from things like spontaneous magic or forcing magic to produce and effect, with or without a wand. It made Harry very glad that he didn't have to take magical theory until later in his Hogwarts career.)

Hermione continued to improve to the point where Ron and Harry suspected that she was easily on or past the level of a sixth year. Ron had been caught in her wake and had grudgingly been dragged up to the point he would have been a quarter of the way through the current year.

Harry, outside of his DADA work, hadn't really improved. But then again, his DADA skills were probably around a seventh year's or above. (Hermione hadn't let him escape with only one book, but Harry had found that he had enjoyed reading about curses, jinxes, tactics, and all the other things related to Defense Against the Dark Arts.)

The experiments with pure ectoplasm continued as well, Hermione recording a great deal about the substance. Her name would eventually go on the paper that published the results, along with Snape's. She would perform the final round of the standard classifying experiments at the labs located in Hogwarts, before moving on to some of her own ideas.

"I think there might be some connection between pure ectoplasm and the Patronus Charm," she had told Harry and Ron. "Especially given what Mrs. Fenton has told us about the collection process. So, Harry I'm going to need your help here, and as long as we're at it, Ron and I might as well learn the charm as well."

Ron sighed.

"I suppose it will come in handy if we encounter anymore Dementors," the red hed admitted. "But what brought this on?"

"Ohhhh, I want to say, but I shouldn't," said Hermione. "You're both acceptable at interpreting data and lab results, and I might need your help later, so I don't want to taint your views."

"Fair enough, fair enough," Ron responded. Harry was tempted to make a joke about how it was surprising for Ron to be acceptable at an academic pursuit such as that, but he didn't for two reasons. First, he didn't trust himself enough to not make it hurtful, and secondly, he and Hermione both knew that Ron was apathetic, not dumb.

The spars with Phantom continued, and Harry got confirmation that Phantom was indeed coming to Hogwarts. Harry was glad; he was becoming friends with the spirit and it would be nice to have a source of information about the Order on hand. (Even if it told him almost nothing.)

Sam had managed to pull herself up to around a fourth year's level of magical competency; she'd be able to catch up easily enough during the year.

Danny... well, he was around a third year's level maybe? It was hard to tell, when it came to theory he was only slightly behind Sam, which according to Danny himself, was a miracle. When it came to practice he was all over the board. Hopefully he'd stabilize soon.

The three Americans spent their last weeks together, often in the company of Jazz, enjoying their last bit of joy together before their inevitable separation. The adults arranged for Tucker's schooling during the upcoming year, and for Jazz's further education.

Finally the day arrived. There was a hectic bustle during the dead and corpse like hours just before dawn, with certain proactive people (Mrs. Weasley and Hermione) finishing a good portion of their work by the time the sky began to lighten, but before the sun rose. Their noise woke the others prematurely, creating a plague of the unawake. Bleary eyes and fumbling hands attempting to force items into portable containers, not realizing that certain items needed to go into certain containers. After stuffing drawers full of schoolbooks, or attempting to jam clothes into toiletry bags, the unawake shambled out of their rooms and down the stairs, where the cure awaited them.

After drinking some tea the occupants of the house began to move at full speed. Magic was liberally used to speed up the process. Liberal use of magic also slowed down the process, added some burn marks, a couple of stains, and other small problems. Liberal use of duplication added Danny Phantom (who complained about the noise and commotion bothering him) to the mix to help out.

Liberal use of anti-ghost weaponry was narrowly avoided.

In the end everyone was fed and ready to leave. Cages sat on trunks, and teenagers stood at the ready.

"So, when are we leaving?" Hermione asked, Crookshanks in her arms.

"After Sturgis Podmore gets here," Mrs. Weasley answered. "Moody wants a full guard in case something happens."

"Like what?" Harry asked. "A pack of rabid Death Eater kittens swarm onto the London streets and devour us alive? Voldemort's lying low, remember? As much as he'd like to slowly dismember me and torture me until I'm willing to eat my own limbs, he's got enough self control to lie low for awhile."

"You never know," Sam spoke up. "I mean there have to be ways he could do it covertly; he could disguise it as a muggle terrorist attack, mind control some random person, poisons,-"

"Okay, okay, okay," Harry replied. "So he's got a couple of ways of doing me in. Although, to be quite honest, I doubt his ego would allow him to kill me in any of those ways."

Of course Harry's ego would gladly permit him to kill Voldemort in any of those manners, and his imagination began to do a slideshow of Voldemort being murdered in the methods Sam had listed.

"Get down here you lot!" Molly shouted. "We're leaving now or we're going to be late!"

Everyone jumped at her command. The teenagers instantly began to file down the stair, taking their luggage with them, Sam and Danny struggling with the unfamiliar setup. They gathered in the hallway right by the front door. Sirius, Molly, and Mad Eye were waiting by the door.

"Alright Harry," Sirius said to his godson, giving him a hug. "It's been a fun summer-"

"For you," Harry retorted. "Getting to battle Death Eaters and ruin a couple days for the Malfoys."

"True enough," the canine animagus admitted. "But it's been great having you over. Stay strong, have a good year, and above all else, try to stay safe. I know it's probably futile, but I'd be a horrible godfather if I didn't at least ask you to do that."

"You're a bad influence, but a good godfather," Harry shot back, grinning. Sirius smiled and ruffled the teenagers hair.

"Someone go fetch Phantom," Moody growled, growing impatient. "He's going to Hogwarts soon, so he can fill in for Sturgis."

"Right here," said the Danny in ghost form, who had been waiting in the entryway invisible and intangible.

"Good." Moody growled. "Find someone to hitch a ride in and we can get going as soon as Tonks-"

"Here!" Tonks shouted, narrowly avoiding tripping as she rushed down the hall.

"Finally," Mad-Eye said, magical eye swiveling about to scan outside. "Move out!"

It took them a little while to make their way to King's Cross Station on foot. The Danny in ghost form had hitched a ride with in Ron (Sam would have been far too awkward and he had no idea what would happen if he tried to hide in himself) and was quietly resting.

Ron had described the sensation like the feeling one got when there was something one should be remembering but one couldn't. A tugging or weight at the back of one's mind.

Once they reached the station, the group casually loitered by the barrier, sending people through in small groups. (The Danny in human form fought the urge to turn intangible as he approached the barrier, the Danny in ghost form forgot for a moment, giving Ron a brief scare).

Sam, Tucker, Danny, Jazz, Jack, and Maddie looked around curiously at the hustle and bustle, and the old fashioned steam engine that was the Hogwarts Express. Harry gladly took in the sights as well. He was finally back. Even if the Wizarding World hated him, doubted him, ostracized him, and hurt him, he was still back where he belonged.

The Americans began to say their good-byes while Moody and the British adults discussed security and Sturgis's screw up. Everyone then unloaded their trunks from the trolleys and loaded it onto the train.

Then the teenager said their final goodbyes. The British children were hugged by Molly Weasley and reminded to write. The Fenton's hugged their son, Tucker hugged his friends.

There was a warning whistle from the train and everyone who was leaving got onboard.

The Danny in ghost form casually slipped out of Ron and began to explore the train. Fred and George dismissed themselves, claiming that they had things to discuss with their friend Lee Jordan.

"Shall we go find a compartment then?" Harry asked.

Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

"Err," Ron began.

"We're-well-Ron and I are supposed to go into the prefect carriage," Hermione said awkwardly.

Harry felt a stab of dark emotions at this.

"And probably be stuck with Malfoy," Harry replied, forcing out a joke. "I'm getting more and more glad that I didn't get the job."

Ron blanched at this.

"No, we just get instructions from the Head Boy and Head Girl," Hermione explained. "Then we need to patrol the corridors for a bit. We'll see you then."

"Ugh," Ron groaned. "Why me? I'm definitely not prefect material."

"You were willing to help me face a basilisk to save your sister, and try and fight a supposed mass murderer to save me," Harry told him. "Dumbledore figured that probably made up for your lack of qualifications. Or maybe he thought you'd be the perfect henchman for Hermione."

"Henchman?" Ron seemed offended.

"Do a good job and I'll promote you to minion," Hermione said, and then grimaced. "Sorry, bad joke. Harry you're a terrible influence on us all."

"Eh," Ron shrugged. "See you later mate."

The two of them then departed, filling Harry with a strange sensation. He had never been on the express without Ron before, from his very first ride to Hogwarts to the end of last year.

"Come on," Ginny told him, "if we get a move on we'll be able to save them places."

Harry nodded. He turned to the americans.

"You two want to join us?" He asked.

"Sure," Sam replied with a shrug. "Why not?"

They headed towards the end of the train, looking for a relatively empty compartment. Harry pretended to ignoring the staring and the whispering. He forced himself to discreetly do some of the breathing exercises Lupin had taught him for meditation. His temper reared, untamable, but he could stop his expression from changing. No need for any spontaneous magic to cause accidents or the like.

Right outside the very last carriage they met Neville Longbottom (a very old and respected family, thank you very much, you can quit snickering now you bloody tosspots), struggling with his luggage and toad.

"Hi Harry," the fellow fifth year greeted his classmate. "Who're they?"

"They're transfer students," Harry explained. "This is Sam Manson and Danny Fenton. Transfer students from America."

"Nice to meet you," Neville said, fumbling with his toad for a moment to offer a hand to shake. "Wait, Fenton? Like from Modern History?"

"Yeah," Harry replied. "Recently discovered to be magical, confirmed not to be affecting his parent's work. Binns will be publishing a paper on it later I hear."

"Really?" Danny asked.

"That's what I heard from Hermione who heard it from McGonagall," Harry informed him. "Hopefully you shouldn't receive too much attention."

"Anyway," Ginny spoke up. "Is the next compartment open?"

"Uh-" Neville began, but the red haired Weasley sister looked past him. "Yep. Only Luna's in here."

Neville muttered something about not wanting to disturb anyone. Ginny laughed.

"Don't worry," she reassured him. "She's nice."

The group filtered into the compartment. Already inside, wearing a butterbeer cork necklace, and reading a magazine upside down, was a girl with waist length dirty blonde hair. Harry figured that she must be Luna.

"Hi Luna," Ginny called out. "Mind if we take these seats?"

Luna nodded, her silver gray eyes scanning the group. They were slightly protruding, giving her a permanently surprised look. Harry noticed that she didn't need to blink as much as a normal human. She seemed a bit owlish to him.

They took their seats, Harry sitting across from the new girl, Danny and Sam sitting together.

"Had a good summer, Luna?" Ginny asked.

"Yes," said Luna dreamily, without taking her eyes off Harry. "Yes, it was quite enjoyable, you know. You're Harry Potter."

"I know I am," said Harry. "Though you could probably call me Unlucky too."

Neville chuckled. Luna turned her pale eyes on him.

"And I don't know who you are," the blonde girl stated.

"I'm nobody," said Neville hurriedly.

"No you're not," said Ginny sharply, giving the boy a disapproving look. "Neville Longbottom-Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw."

"And you're Danny Fenton," Luna said, looking at the American. "And you must Samantha Manson."

"Sam please," the goth girl requested.

They were quiet for a while while the train rattled onward under the dreary gray British sky. Eventually Neville decided to break the silence.

"Guess what I got for my birthday?" said Neville.

"Another Remembrall?" said Harry.

"No," said Neville. "I could do with one, though, I lost the old one ages ago... " A statement which nicely summed up the primary design flaw of the product. "It's something else."

He dug the hand that was not keeping a firm grip on Trevor into his schoolbag and after a little bit of rummaging pulled out what appeared to be a small grey cactus in a pot, except that it was covered with what looked like boils rather than spines.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia," he said proudly.

Harry stared at the thing. It was pulsating slightly, giving it the rather sinister look of some diseased internal organ.

"It's really, really rare," said Neville, beaming despite the horrid thing he held in his hands. "I don't know if there's one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts, even. I can't wait to show it to Professor Sprout. My Great Uncle Algie got it for me in Assyria. I'm going to see if I can breed from it."

"So you can use it to poison Snape?" Harry asked, innocently.

"What?" Neville looked shocked at the idea.

"Turnabout's fair play," Harry told him.

"What no!" Neville protested. "It's got other uses and a really interesting defensive mechanism. Here let me show you-" As he spoke what were undoubtedly some of the more common last words (probably coming just after 'hold my beer and watch this) Harry got a real bad feeling. His wand was in his hand in an instant.

"Neville, wait!" He called out to his fellow fifth year. But he was too late. Neville had given the plant a sharp jab with his quill. Liquid squirted from every boil on the plant; thick, stinking, dark green jets of it.

The liquid hit a shimmering translucent blue dome. Harry had acted on instinct and cast a shield spell around Neville and the plant. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Danny had also gotten his wand out, and Sam had just finished doing so. Why were they so quick on the draw?

Harry let the shield spell die down. Neville sat in a very large puddle of the disgusting liquid, shaking his head to get the worst of it out of his eyes.

"Wow, didn't expect it to be so... well, at least Stinksap isn't poisonous," the filth covered Gryffindor said. "Nice reflexes Harry."

"Thanks," replied the-boy-who-avoided-a-mess. "Let's get you cleaned up- _Scourgify!_"

The sap vanished, just as the compartment door opened. A very pretty girl with long, shiny black hair was standing in the doorway smiling at him: Cho Chang, the Seeker on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

That could have been really awkward, Harry thought to himself.

"Hello Harry," Cho said. "Thought I'd stop by."

Harry's brain struggled to think of something either meaningful or witty. Harry's brain failed. Harry hated his brain.

"Uh, hi" he replied blankly. Curse his deficient mind! He was stupider than Crabbe or Goyle.

"So how was your summer?" She asked him, evidently not noticing that he was no longer capable of any higher processes.

"It was uneventful," Harry answered, which was a miracle, because he was supposed to be currently too stupid to talk. "I evidently read all the wrong article; I had no clue that I was an attention seeking brat until recently."

"_The Prophet_'s really been horrid of late," said Cho. "I really wish we had other news sources."

(Danny noticed that Sam was about to jump into the conversation, probably try and start some sort of new cause regarding freedom of information in the wizarding world. While it was probably a nice idea, Danny didn't think it was currently the place or time, so he quickly distracted her.)

"If we had other news sources we wouldn't know what and how the people in charge want us to be thinking," Harry responded. "Just think of the chaos that could cause. We might have a happy functioning society."

Cho smiled a little at that, though the look she gave afterwards was slightly strange.

"What about yours?" Harry asked.

"It was-" When he saw her downcast look Harry wanted to hit himself. Of course, her boyfriend had died at the end of last year. But then again it was supposed to be meaningless small talk; completely safe topics. Asking someone about their summer wasn't supposed to be taboo. "Okay, I guess. Uneventful as well." Cho's expression returned to normal. "I should probably get going. Just thought I'd stop by and say hello."

"Alright," Harry replied. She left.

It was nearly an hour until Ron and Hermione showed up. The food trolley had been by and everyone had fun encouraging the Americans to try wizarding treats and snacks. Danny shied away from any snacks that had a magical effect on the people who ate them for some reason, while Sam tried a bit of everything. The new arrivals were accompanied by Pigwidgeon and Crookshanks.

"I'm starving," said Ron, stowing Pigwidgeon next to Hedwig, grabbing a Chocolate Frog from Harry and throwing himself into the seat next to him. He ripped open the wrapper, bit off the frog's head and leaned back with his eyes closed as though he had had a very exhausting morning.

"Well, there are two fifth-year prefects from each house," said Hermione, looking thoroughly disgruntled as she took her seat. "Boy and girl from each."

"And guess who's a Slytherin prefect?" said Ron, still with his eyes closed.

"Malfoy of course," replied Harry at once, certain his worst fear would be confirmed. "The universe wouldn't want to start showing any mercy now."

"Who's Malfoy?" Danny asked. "I've heard you mention that name before."

"Stupid, pretty, rich git," Harry told him. "Arrogant, elitist, Death Eater wannabe. We hate each other."

"Your school nemesis?"

"Pretty much." Harry wondered if Phantom would be able to give any advice on how to deal with nemesis's- or was it nemesi? The english language was stupid, he should learn an artificial language. Maybe Esperanto. Too bad he didn't know anyone who could speak it...

He shook his head and returned to the earlier subject.

"And let me guess, the other prefect is his hanger-on Pansy," Harry asked Ron and Hermione, who nodded. "Typical."

"Why were they made prefects?" Sam asked. "From the sound of things, it doesn't seem like they'd do a good job."

"Snape," Harry told the transfer student. "Probably his idea."

"Seems like it will end up hurting his own house," said Sam. "Why's he a teacher again?"

"Who knows," Harry shrugged.

Well it's not so bad with the other houses," Hermione told him. "Hufflepuff has Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott. Ravenclaw's got Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil."

"Your friend went to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil," said a vague voice.

Everyone turned to look at Luna Lovegood, who was gazing unblinkingly at Ron over the top of The Quibbler. He swallowed his mouthful of Frog.

"Yeah, I know I did," he said, looking mildly surprised.

"She didn't enjoy it very much," Luna informed him. 'She doesn't think you treated her very well, because you wouldn't dance with her. I don't think I'd have minded,' she added thoughtfully, "I don't like dancing very much."

She retreated behind The Quibbler again. Ron stared at the cover with his mouth hanging open for a few seconds, then looked around at Ginny for some kind of explanation, but Ginny had stuffed her knuckles in her mouth to stop herself giggling. Ron shook his head, bemused, then checked his watch.

"We're supposed to patrol the corridors every so often," he told Harry, Danny, Sam and Neville, "and we can give out punishments if people are misbehaving. I can't wait to get Crabbe and Goyle for something..."

"You're not supposed to abuse your position, Ron!" said Hermione sharply.

"Yeah, right, because Malfoy won't abuse it at all," said Ron sarcastically.

"So you're going to descend to his level?"

"No, I'm just going to make sure I get his mates before he gets mine." Though he had been thinking tactically instead of philosophically Ron had managed to sum up several dilemmas, problems, and issues of the human condition, the fight between good and evil, and why life sucked.

Hermione and Ron argued. Nothing new there. Harry tuned them out.

At some point Ron must've made a joke that made Luna crack up, and then the Americans began asking about English slang. Harry ignored them in favor of reading an article out of the magazine that Luna had dropped. Evidently Sirius had neglected to tell him about his singing career. He'd have fun teasing his godfather with this.

Once more the compartment door slid open. Harry stood up. He'd been expecting this.

It was Draco Malfoy and his two thugs. Of course. Harry knew why he was there.

"Alright, so you're here to taunt me about your badge," Harry said. "Probably throw in a few threats about how you intend to abuse your newfound powers. Maybe throw in a couple of taunts and other hidden threats. It's too obvious. Go away for five minutes and come back with something creative."

"Uh-" Draco seemed slightly taken aback. "Well, I was also planning on taunting Weasley and Granger a bit, maybe show the transfer students their place. This was supposed to be a general start of the year thing- wait, what am I saying?" Draco realized he'd been sidetracked. "And why should I listen to you? I should give you detention for disrespecting a prefect!"

"Please, just being in your presence is punishment enough," Harry told the Death Eater in training. "If your boss wins, he'll probably execute me by making me spend a week with you. Course he'd kill you soon afterwards because you're a slimey, incompetent, bootlicking git."

"Watch it Potter," Malfoy's voice had gone soft and cold. He held his right hand up by his chest, fingers slightly apart. A blue spark crackled from fingertip to fingertip. "There's plenty of danger around, things that can't be traced back to wands."

Death threats from Malfoy. Harry had sort of missed them. The nice thing about Malfoy was that he was so refreshingly constant.

"I'm well aware of that," Harry told him calmly, his eyes narrowing. A small breeze began to ruffle his hair and clothes as he called upon his summer research. As the breeze reached Malfoy the blonde's eyes narrowed.

Harry was bluffing of course. Malfoy had probably been taught some of his family's lightning magic over the summer. When it came to wandless magic, he was by far the more dangerous of the two. All Harry could do without a wand thus far was make a small breeze.

But the Boy-Who-Lived had read up on magical battles as well. He was aware of the main issue with lightning magic. Ironically, it was slow. A wielder had to take great care and effort in controlling it, otherwise it would be worse than useless. When the actual attack came, it would be fast, but it would take some time before it could be ready. That was probably why Malfoy kept Crabbe and Goyle close by; they could buy him such time.

There were other methods of using lightning magic of course, but they were usually something along the lines of a jet type spell acting as a carrier or container for the energy; those attacks lacked the speed and power of using lightning directly. The Malfoys probably would regard those methods as secondary and train with them later.

What it came down to was this; Harry was pretty sure that either he could manage to bluff the stupid buggers down, or he'd just use his wand to hex them. He knew his draw would quick enough. And they wouldn't be expecting it.

If a fight hadn't been about to start Harry would've taken a moment to enjoy the imagined expressions on their faces if he were to do so.

"Bugger off Malfoy," a voice said beside him. Harry nearly started; he had been so focused on Malfoy that he hadn't noticed Ron come to his side. "You're not the only prefect here."

"I don't think this is the time or place for you to be doing this," Hermione scolded from Harry's other side. She had her wand in hand. "I'm pretty sure you'd regret taking any rash actions." She left the nature of the regrets vague

Draco sneered at them.

"It's not like you have numbers on your side or anything," Sam told the blonde boy, standing up, her wand also out. Danny was by her side, but he seemed strangely hesitant.

(Danny was used to simply enduring fights in his human form. Or when he did have to actually fight, he used his ghost powers. If something started on the train, neither approach would work. He'd have to break those habits at sometime.)

"Yeah!" Neville said, joining the Golden Trio.

"Get out of here," Ginny added.

"You're not a very nice person Mr. Malfoy," Luna said dreamily. "You could make more real friends if you acted differently."

"I see you've got your pets well trained," Draco snarled. "Fine, we'll go. It's not like I even have to do anything to make you get what you deserve."

The three of them backed out of the compartment and closed the door behind themselves. Hermione rounded on Harry.

"And you didn't need to go escalating things," she scolded him. "Ron and I are prefects. You should have let us handle things."

That honestly hadn't occurred to him.

Wasn't it supposed to be his job to stand up to Malfoy, Voldemort, and their ilk?

"It's probably best if you try and avoid him if you can mate," Ron told him. "He's going to be nastier this year. You lot should do the same," referring to Neville, Danny, and Sam, "especially after this incident."

"I'm not scared of him," Sam eyes flashed dangerously. "I've seen worse."

"It's not a bad idea," Danny disagreed. "There's no need to go looking for trouble."

"Easy for you to say," Sam muttered, quiet enough that only Danny could hear, and rolled her eyes. He could always deal with the prick in secret.

"Sorry," Harry replied meekly to Hermione. "I-, nevermind." It was his job, not theirs. Except it wasn't.

"It's okay," Hermione assured him. "Just don't let it happen again."

The rest of the ride continued without incident. Eventually they neared Hogwarts and had to change into their school robes. Danny complained about having to wear a uniform and then he and Sam started to bicker. Ron and Hermione left to go help with the upcoming departure of students from the train, leaving Ginny and Neville to take care of their animals.

The train stopped and the usual chaos that followed began. Harry, his friends, the Americans, and Luna all filed out, sticking together in the crowd.

Harry looked around for the familiar sight of Hagrid.

"First years over here please," he heard the familiar words, but they were spoken in a woman's voice. It was Professor Grubbly-Plank, not the lovable half-giant.

Harry felt a stab of worry. Where was he? Maybe he had a cold?

He looked around, for either Ron or Hermione, to talk to them about this new development, when his eyes fell upon the carriages. What he saw made him do a double take.

Winged black horse reptile _things_ were pulling the carriages. Black bat like wings twitched, vast ones that sprouted from each bony back. And these creatures were definitely boney, Harry didn't think they had a spare ounce of flesh anywhere on their bodies. Their heads resembled dragon heads, and their eyes, their horrible eyes, were completely white.

Did someone put Snape in charge of the carriages this year?

"There you are," Ron's voice said behind Harry. "Come on, let's grab a carriage."

Ron and Hermione rejoined the group, and everyone went to the carriages.

"So what are those things?" Harry asked, gesturing to the terrible horses.

"What things?" Ron asked, puzzled.

"Those things!" Harry hissed, pointing.

"The carriages?"

"No, what's pulling them," said Harry.

"There's nothing there," Ron said, giving Harry a worried look.

"No, there's something there," Danny said. "Sam, can you see them?"

"No, I can't," she answered, peering into the darkness. "At least not well. There's something, but I can't make it out. What do they look like?"

"Reptile horses with wings," Danny answered.

"That sounds about right," Sam said.

Ron and Hermione gave them both alarmed looks.

"Are you two feeling alright?" Hermione asked. "Malfoy didn't sneak off a curse or anything, did he? Come on, just get in."

"Oh, I can see them too," Luna spoke up. "I've been able to see them since my first day here. You're both as sane as I am."

In this crazy world, Harry reflected as the group filed into the coach, it was quite possible that her statement was one hundred percent correct.

* * *

AN: So I had wanted to give you all a nice long chapter to make up for the delay, but all I could squeeze out was this pathetic 9K excuse. But it's been busy. Graduation approaching, job hunt is intensifying, and someone stole a crucial table from the dorm lobby. Luckily they returned it, otherwise I would have hunted them down and cast them into the Primordial Void, where not a single bit of light would ever reach them ever again.

(Crap, I missed the new Doctor Who episode to keep writing. I'll have to watch it tomorrow on my dinky computer screen rather on one of the nice big tvs around here. I hope you're all happy with yourselves.)

Sam's speech, since I know some people will be confused, was to get across the nature of the blow that followed. It wasn't the 'girl punches guy in shoulder thing cause she's angry and of course it couldn't really hurt' (last part of that is utter bullshit) or the anime slapstick double standard. It was more like a dramatic slap or a punch between two guys. It just seemed more Sam like to punch him in that position rather than slap him. Maybe I was wrong.

Anyway, on to more serious matters. Or less. Depends on your point of view. Managed to get this story back on track, I've sort've been wasting time for the last couple of chapters. Well, no not really, been setting up a lot of things for later, but I feel I was screwing around too much with the humor. But then again, the Harry Potter side of the crossover, in terms of themes, setting, and tone, hadn't really begun yet. Now that they're at Hogwarts I can start digging into that stuff.

Also, I need a beta for this story. Originally this was a fic that was supposed to be written fast. Betas would only slow that down. But since I've been failing at the speed thing, I might as well get a beta. It would also be nice so I can hear someone's thoughts on it before I publish it; there are plenty of risks I don't take because I don't know if they'll work or not. And then there's my spelling and grammar. So if you'd like to beta say so in a PM or in a review.

Let's see, what else...

Surprised at the number of reviews praising my portrayal of Dumbledore. Admittedly he's fun to write but I didn't know he'd be that well received. Some people have mentioned that they haven't seen this sort of portrayal before and that makes me curious. If you've come across a portrayal of Dumbledore that's like mine, could someone point me to it? I don't know if it's actually that rare or it's one of those cases where the people who read my fic simply don't read those fics very often.

(Snape's also fun to write, partially because I haven't revealed everything that's going on in his head, and partially because of what I know that's going on in there)

I think that's it, so make sure to leave a review.

REVIEW! REVIEWS FOR THE REVIEW GOD!

Otherwise I might decide to turn this fic into an essay about the relationship between madness and magic.

Though actually I plan to deal with that in the Hellblazer/Another crossover I have planned for when I finish this, so I'll probably commit some other heinous act. (FUCK YOU DC! There was no need to end Hellblazer like that! You could have at least given them another year and time to set up a really grand ending. And fuck your new kiddy friendly series as well.)

Anyway REVIEW.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter or Danny Phantom. I'd like to thank PhoenixLyric for betaing this chapter.

* * *

Like usual, the Great Hall was filled with floating candles and the ceiling was delivering a grand view of the clear night sky to the students below. Hogwarts was far enough away from muggle civilization that one could see the true night sky, with a vast expanse of glorious stars shining their light onto the earth below. It was a wondrous sight, and Sam, a city girl, couldn't stop herself from letting out a small gasp when she looked up. Danny, who did a bit more traveling, also took a moment to appreciate the sight and reflected on how it compared to cities at night when he had the occasion to look down on them. Upon consideration he found the two to different views to be too cool to decide which one was better.

The pair looked around the hall, trying to find their respective tables, having been briefly separated from Harry, Ron, and Hermione after leaving the carriages. Danny spotted the scarlet and gold of Gryffindor and Sam found the blue and bronze of Ravenclaw. They reluctantly let go of each other's hands and made their way to sit down. Danny spotted the trio he had gotten to know over the summer and made his way over to claim a seat by them.

Internally the halfa grumbled to himself about being stuck in a different House than his girlfriend. So many opportunities ruined...

He sat down and looked at the professor's table. He recognized plenty of them from his work with the Order, though many were still mysteries. He had to remember to avoid catching Dumbledore's eye; Danny Phantom worked with the man, Danny Fenton did not. Couldn't risk spilling his secret identity

His stomach growled.

"When does the food get here?" Danny asked the trio.

"After the sorting," Hermione answered.

"Thanks," Danny replied. He went back to looking around the Great Hall. The halfa was thankful that his ghost sense had already gone off as there were a multitude of ghosts- sorry, shades to use a more specific term- floating around, talking to the assembled students. Danny just hoped none of them would recognize him and start an awkward and potentially dangerous conversation. He turned back to the trio.

The youngest Fenton (youngest if one didn't count Dani that was) wasn't an expert at reading faces or anything, but the smile Harry currently had on seemed kinda forced. The ghost boy vaguely recalled some conversations from Grimmauld Place about how the press was attacking the Boy-Who-Lived and figured that some of the students here probably bought into it. Danny felt for his peer; he had been there after he had been framed by Walker.

Ron and Hermione began to vocalize their worry about Hagrid, the gamekeeper, who Danny remembered was off as an envoy to the giants. Not that his peers would know. It had come up at one of the meetings Phantom had attended.

"I think that woman's the new DADA teacher," Harry said, gesturing towards a squat woman in a pink cardigan, who was busy talking to Dumbledore. She reminded Danny of those embarrassing family members that one avoided at family reunions because they pinched cheeks or gave bad gifts. Then, she took a sip from her goblet and Danny revised his impression to pink toad.

"So who's she supposed to be?," Ron said. "Is she any good?"

"I've got no idea," Hermione admitted. "I hope she is. In times like these, Defense Against the Dark Arts is more essential than ever."

"As long as she's better than Lockhart," Harry added, "Which shouldn't be difficult. Even if she did nothing but teach out of the textbook... did we ever get the name of the DADA textbook?"

"No, she'll probably tell us on the first day we have class with her," Hermione replied. She sighed. "We'll have to get them by owl order I suppose."

"Upset that you won't be able to finish the book before classes begin?" Harry spoke with a smirk.

"I like to be prepared!" Hermione protested. "Besides, based on what sort of book she assigns, we might've been able to learn a bit about her character."

"What's she gonna do, spring a pop quiz on us the first day of classes?" Ron asked with a snort.

"She might," Hermione replied, rounding on the red head. "Like Snape did to Harry during our first Potions class."

Harry was about to add something, but he went quiet once the Sorting began. Danny took a look at the terrified faces of the first years and was glad that transfer students got to skip a public sorting. That would've made the whole 'put on this mind reading hat' ordeal even worse. Well worse than he feared that is. His actual ordeal consisted of the hat barely touching his head, a whisper of psh, an easy sorting in the recesses of his mind, and a nearly instant cry of "Gryffindor!".

It could have at least taken a moment to browse his mind and consider!

Danny didn't pay much attention to the song the hat was singing. Harry, Ron, and Hermione on the other hand listened intently as the hat sung its sorrow, its fears, and its warning.

"Branched out a bit this year, hasn't it?" Ron stated, raising his red eyebrows.

"The talking hat at school knows that something's going on," Harry grumbled. "Why don't we elect it Minister of Magic instead?"

"Huh?" Danny tilted his head quizzically. "What'd I miss."

Hermione shot a glare at him.

"If you weren't paying attention I shouldn't have to explain it to you," she told the american in her 'bossy' voice.

"Well I wasn't asking you in particular, but if you would be so kind..." Danny replied.

"Sorting Hat warned us to unite," Ron informed Danny, speaking quietly while the Sorting went on. "Fat chance of that ever happening. The Slytherins would sooner stab us in the back- zap us in Malfoy's case, I guess- then help us."

"They aren't all bad-" Hermione protested.

"Yes, yes, yes," Harry replied, rolling his eyes. "We know there are good Slytherins, they just don't speak up for fear of being done in. But for the purpose of this discussion, and most others involving Slytherin, they don't really matter 'cause they don't do much."

"This comes up a lot?" Danny asked.

"Occasionally those two want to group everyone in Slytherin house together with the Death Eaters," Hermione told Danny. "I just try to have everyone keep some perspective."

The group of three plus one was quiet while they listened to the rest of the Sorting. When it was finished and the last first year had been seated, Albus Dumbledore stood up.

"To our newcomers,' Dumbledore addressed the hall in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, "welcome! To our old hands-welcome back! There is a time for speech-making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

There was laughter, there was applause, and then there was food. Meats and breads and fruits and vegetables and roasts and puddings and desserts and sweets and sausages and strange foods and foreign foods and familiar foods and just food all over the tables. It was enough to give a starving man a heart attack just by looking and the sudden smell would've been enough to bring him back.

It was too bad Tucker wasn't here, Danny thought to himself as he dug in, he would've liked it.

"I don't recognize you," a dark skinned boy sitting next to Danny spoke up between mouthfuls. "Are you a transfer student?"

"Yeah," Danny answered, holding out a hand. "Danny Fenton."

"Dean Thomas," the boy replied, shaking the offered hand. "Fenton as in the Amity Park Fentons?"

"Yeah," Danny replied. "I've heard my family's sorta known in the wizarding world."

"Well known to anyone who keeps up with current events," Dean responded. "So I take it you're the reason why your parents' inventions work?"

"No," Danny answered. "If anything I was one of the things they had to work around. Some wizards have taken a look at their inventions and confirmed that I had nothing to do with their function. If anything I was another obstacle to work around."

"So what year are you going in as?" Dean inquired.

"Fifth year," Danny answered. "With lots of catching up to do. I spent the whole summer working on learning magic and I still can't do most of the spells right. Hell, I can't even do them wrong properly. How can a Hovering Charm make an inanimate object act like a duck? Not hover or fly, but waddle around and quack?"

Dean chortled.

"No clue mate, no clue," the dark skinned boy said between laughs. "Just a word of warning though, Binns is probably going to do something with you during Modern Magical History class. Amity Park and your family has been a matter of debate in politics and he's made us write essays on it before."

"I've been warned, but thanks anyway." Danny didn't mention that he'd already had a run in with the ghostly professor, just under a different identity. He was already on his guard.

"Well, now, you shouldn't take that attitude," Danny and Dean tuned into the conversation that Ron, Hermione, and Harry were having with the Gryffindor House ghost, Nearly Headless Nick. "Peaceful co-operation, that's the key. We ghosts, though we belong to separate houses, maintain links of friendship. In spite of the competitiveness between Gryffindor and Slytherin, I would never dream of seeking an argument with the Bloody Baron."

Danny almost interjected about the Baron not being an argumentative sort; the blood spattered ghost would simply rather quit the conversation than get into anything but the most good natured of arguments. Danny had asked him about it once when visiting the castle and the shade had simply told him that the reason for his behavior had to do with past sins he had committed.

"Only because you're terrified of him," Ron said instead of Danny's comment. Danny internally conceded that the former was also a possibility as to why no one wanted to argue with the Bloody Baron.

Ron and the shade proceeded to bicker briefly before Nick left to talk with others and Ron got scolded by Hermione. Danny was glad that the shade didn't linger. Dealing with the Hogwarts ghosts was going to be a major pain during the year.

The students continued to stuff their faces full of the wonderful (and seemingly endless) food until they could eat no more. Some of them may have tried anyway, enjoying one last plateful of dessert that they shouldn't have had. Dumbledore waited until most of the students had quit eating and started talking (or started to nod off, drowsy from the hour and the food) before standing up again.

"Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices," Dumbledore said before beginning his annoucments. "First-years ought to know that the Forest in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students-and a few of our older students ought to know by now, too."(Harry, Ron and, somewhat surprisingly, Hermione, exchanged smirks.)

Dumbledore gave his usual warning about Filch and mentioned that Professor Grubbly-Plank would be teaching Care of Magical Creatures while Hagrid was away with the giants. Well, the last part wasn't said, but Danny knew it to be true. Then Dumbledore got to the part about Defense Against the Dark Arts, which would be taught by the pink woman, Professor Umbridge, and tried to move on to talking about try outs for the weird broom sport when the pink toad interrupted him.

Danny blinked. That was unexpected. Dumbledore only seemed surprised for half an instant before sitting down and giving her all of his attention. The other teachers didn't recover as quickly. Several eyebrows were extremely high and McGonagall's mouth was extremely thin as she kept an open glare off of her face.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge simpered, "for those kind words of welcome."

Danny's inner cynic, honed by high school, was instantly alarmed by the sound of her voice. It was never good when teachers talked in such a tone. High-pitched, trying to take on child like inflections, as if she was trying to sound like one of them, but she only knew how caricatures of pre-teens and teenagers sounded, not the real deals.

"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. "And to see such happy little faces looking up at me!"

And that bit of condescension settled it. Casper High had been forced to put up with such types before; almost every high school had. Danny quit listening right then as experience told him that there was nothing but pain to be gained from listening. Sam of course, would be planning to fight back against such treatment and against such a teacher, and would be paying close and angry attention. But Danny's preferred strategy for dealing with things he couldn't punch or blast was simply: endure.

He almost missed the tone change, but tuned back in the moment he noticed that he became duller and a bit more brisk. Like a principle reading new regulations or a government announcement.

"...The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down the generations lest we lose them for ever..."

And Danny was too bored to pay any more attention. And then he heard the headmaster's voice once more.

"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating," Albus said, bowing to her. "Now, as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held ..."

"I don't know who she is," Hermione spoke up quietly, "but after that little speech I'm pretty sure I know who she's with."

"Huh?" Danny and Ron monosyllabically inquired in unison.

"I'm pretty sure she's with the Ministry," Hermione answered. "That part about 'progress for progress's sake must be discouraged' or 'pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited' is just her way of saying that she's planning on changing the way things are run here at Hogwarts. Remember, Fudge has decided that Dumbledore is after his job and is the one really stirring up trouble. He'd want to attack Dumbledore's power base so he wouldn't be a threat any more. So he sends someone to Hogwarts to take the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Dumbledore can't fill, especially after the character assassination Fudge has pulled off. So he's forced to take Fudge's agent who can do her best to harass Dumbledore at every turn. Meanwhile, Fudge can force through legislation to support her."

Ron's eyes widened as he thought about what Hermione had said. Harry and Danny both glared. They were both thinking the same thing; 'it was going to be hard enough to do my job without that idiot Fudge and now this pink toad interfering.' However, Danny Fenton thought his job was assisting the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter thought his job was to defeat Voldemort, most likely without aid from anyone besides Ron and Hermione.

Everyone around them got up with a great clattering and banging. Evidently they had been dismissed. Hermione jumped up, looking a bit flustered.

"Ron we're supposed to show the first years where to go!" She exclaimed.

"Oh yeah," said Ron, who had obviously forgotten. "Hey-hey, you lot! Midgets!"

"Don't call them midgets!"

"Here," Harry offered to Danny, "Follow me, I'll show you where Gryffindor Tower is at."

"Thanks," replied Danny, who sort of already knew from previous visits to the castle, but didn't want to reveal that.

They trekked through the corridors. Danny noticed the whispers and stares directed at Harry as they went. He noticed that the-boy-in-question noticed them as well. He tried to think of some comfort or advice that Danny Fenton could reasonable offer Harry Potter but couldn't think of any. Maybe a visit from Danny Phantom would help...

They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Crap, what's the password," Harry said realizing that he had forgotten to get it from someone.

"Harry, I know it!" Someone panted up behind them and the two of them turned to see Neville jogging up to them. "Guess what it is? I'm actually going to be able to remember it for once- " He waved the stunted little cactus he had shown them on the train. "Mimbuius mimbletonia!"

"Correct," said the Fat Lady, and her portrait swung open towards them like a door, revealing a circular hole in the wall behind. They all climbed through.

Danny looked around at Gryffindor Tower. He had passed through here before, briefly while on business. He hadn't really had time to examine the place too closely then. It was a cozy looking circular tower, full of rickety tables, squishy armchairs, and a merrily crackling fire. Students of all years and ages were filing away to their dorms.

Danny and Harry headed towards their dorms. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan had reached the dormitory first and were in the process of covering the walls beside their beds with posters and photographs. They had been talking as Harry pushed open the door but stopped abruptly the moment they saw the two of them, or rather, when they saw Harry.

"Hi," Harry said to the two of them, moving over to his own trunk to start his unpacking.

"Hey Harry," Dean replied. "Hi again Danny. Good holiday, Harry?"

"It was certainly interesting," Harry responded. "What about you?"

"Yeah it was okay," Dean replied. "Better-"

"Holiday?" Danny asked. "What holidays are there over summer vacation? There's the Fourth of July but I'm pretty sure it's not celebrated over here..."

"Summer holiday is summer vacation, you American heathen," Harry replied, pretending to look disgusted at the other boy's cultural ignorance. "You'd know that if you spoke proper English."

"Out of the dozens of accents and dialects out here which is proper English?" Danny asked. "Because if it's the fancy pants, rich, formal tea-party throwing sort then you don't speak it either."

"A heathen would never understand," Harry said, looking down his nose at Danny, before grinning and turning to talk to Dean.

"So you're looking down on people for their accents now?" Seamus was giving Harry a nasty look. "I guess the Prophet was right about you then."

"Calm down mate, it was obviously a joke," Dean interjected before Harry could say anything.

Harry discreetly bit his lip to keep from lashing out at Seamus. He took the anger, the pain, the bitter darkness inside of himself that was clawing at him, and stuffed it all down. He ignored his own pain and forced himself to think of a joke.

"Ouch," Harry said, pretending to wince. "My poor character. Assassinated in the darkness, stabbed in the back by pieces of paper. It died not with a bang, but with a whimper, and the regret that it ever subscribed to that rag in the first place."

It got a weak chuckle from Dean and a wan smile from Danny.

"You're not doing much to prove it wrong," Seamus continued his earlier accusation in a defensive tone. "I almost wasn't allowed to come back because of you and Dumbledore. My mum reads the paper you know-"

"So you'd rather have us pretend that everything's smelling of roses despite the fact that Voldemort killed Cedric last year?" Danny could tell that Harry was having to fight to keep his anger out of his voice. "So we could pretend everything's good and not have to worry until Death Eaters are knocking at our doors?"

"You know, I don't get why they don't just ask you to drink some of that truth potion stuff and ask you again?" Danny questioned. "I mean if you were an attention seeking brat-"

"Prat," Harry corrected on instinct.

"I think both words work in this case," Dean added.

"-then they could prove you were lying," Danny finished. Thinking back on some of his own nasty encounters with the press and frame ups, Danny continued. "In fact I don't get why they don't just get some Polyjuice potion and give the truth potion to someone disguised as you and spoon feed them questions. Or even manufacture evidence to discredit you two. Instead they're just having the paper attack you and probably sent that Umbrage-"

"Umbridge," Harry corrected again.

"Does it really matter?" Danny responded. "As I was saying, sent that Umbridge woman here to mess with you two. Heck they could do all those things together, and maybe even investigate matters behind the scenes just to make sure. If they're clever they could probably discredit you two, find Voldemort, make it seem like he returned in a way completely unrelated to your story, and take credit for his defeat themselves."

Seamus and Dean just stared at the American.

"Why aren't you in Slytherin?" Seamus asked the boy. "Cause that seems like something they would think of."

"Probably because cunning and ambition aren't my defining feature," Danny replied with a shrug. "And I'm not all that cunning. I just get clever sometimes."

He was pretty sure a Slytherin would get better grades than himself as well. And then there was the fact that most of his cunning or cleverness came from fighting and dealing with Vlad. It was more of a situational thing that he was slowly learning to apply to other areas of life.

Ewww. He just thought that Vlad had something to do with a positive development in himself. Danny felt like he needed a shower.

"I don't think that it's legal to use Veritaserum on a minor," Dean replied. "And there are ways around it. It just makes you say what you believe to be true for one and there are skills one can learn to avoid its effects. Like using memory altering charms beforehand so you think whatever you're lying about is true. There's a reason it's not used much in court proceedings. But other than that, yeah I don't get what they're doing either."

"It's because they don't want to waste taxpayer money," Seamus answered halfheartedly. "Fine. I'll admit I don't know what's really going on, but's it's making life harder for everyone-"

"So will Voldemort if he ever gets in power," Harry shot back. "Look, I know the ostrich is currently in fashion right now, but's it's just a fad. It has no long term viability. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away and anyone who take any excuse to believe that is rubbish."

"Are you calling me rubbish?!" Seamus exclaimed angrily, advancing on Harry.

"Or your mother," Harry shot back, his own temper flaring, the bitter emotions exploding out from the darkness.

"Oi, Harry," it was Neville who spoke up. "Don't go having a go at his mother."

"Yeah, you're both acting a bit like prats right now," Dean added. "Calm down."

Harry and Seamus shot dark looks at each other before turning back to their preparations for the night.

Ron entered the dormitory and failed to pick up on the mood.

"Hey everyone!" He greeted the room at large. "Finally done with the midgets. It's funny, I never remembered being that small at that age. Anyone how was everyone's summers?"

"It could've been better," Seamus replied rather stonily. "Without two loons running their mouths."

"Yeah, it could have been better if his mother could quit believing everything the Prophet had to say," Harry shot back.

"Quit having a go at my mother!"

"Then quit having a go at me in her place!"

"Then quit spewing rubbish about You-Know-Who! Nobody believes your tripe anyway!"

"I happen to," Ron replied with a glare for Seamus. "And you know Harry better than her or the Prophet. I reckon it's time for you to quit letting them do your thinking for you."

"Bugger off you prick!" Seamus nearly shouted.

"Unfortunately for you, this prick happens to be a prefect." Ron shot back. "So shut your gob before you get a detention."

Seamus looked like he wanted to hurl more abuse at Ron or Harry, but decided against it. He swiveled on his heel, jumped into bed, and violently shut the hangings. If they had been normal hangings they would have been torn off, but the hangings around student's beds were enchanted and warded to help contain any accidental magic that might be unconsciously performed by hormonal teenagers who were being taught the Art at the moment. Of course they only helped with magic that would be coming out after a hard day of learning magic, not in, so they still left Harry with the option of hexing Seamus...

"Anyone else or their mum got a problem with Harry?" Ron asked angrily, looking around the room.

"Nope," Dean replied. "My folks are muggles. They don't know anything that's going on because I'm not thick enough to tell them."

"Yeah and if she knew what was going on, with our headmaster being a loon who was sacked-" Seamus said angrily from behind his hangings, but was interrupted by Neville.

"My gran says that's rubbish. She says it's the Daily Prophet that's going downhill, not Dumbledore. She's cancelled our subscription. We believe Harry." Neville climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to his chin, looking owlishly over them at Seamus. "My grans always said You-Know-Who would come back one day. She says if Dumbledore says he's back, he's back."

"Zzzzzzzz," came the response from Danny's bed. The transfer student had already fallen asleep.

Harry felt a shot of warmth both at Ron's defence and at Neville's support. But it was immediately snuffed out by the thought of enduring more attacks like Seamus's. He thought these people knew him better than that.

Harry thought he knew them better than that.

Obviously he had been wrong.

Before he drifted off Harry wondered if this is how Dumbledore felt about all the attacks that he had to endure as well. Maybe he was being a bit too hard on the old wizard...

* * *

The next day, classes were slated to begin. As Danny groggily got out of bed for breakfast he wondered why they couldn't give the students a day or two to adjust before diving into classes. He still needed to find his way around the castle (in human form) after all. Well, he had the same core classes as the others so he could just follow his housemates during those periods. It was during electives that he was screwed.

Oh and he'd have to try and see if the Fenton Phones worked this far apart and at Hogwarts or if he'd have to go into the Ghost Zone and place relays. And then he'd have to keep an eye on the enchanted parchment to see if Dumbledore needed him for anything. And he still had to talk to Harry as Phantom.

He needed to go downstairs and get a full plate from the Great Hall to deal with his full plate for the day. The halfa got dressed, idly noticing the Seamus kid rushing out of the dormitory, and wandered out of the room. He stopped by the bathroom, entered a stall, went invisible, went ghost, went intangible, and traveled down to a first floor men's restroom. The halfa made a duplicate before he returned to normal and headed towards the Great Hall for breakfast. The duplicate flew off to take care of some of the day's business.

Superman had phone booths. Danny Phantom had bathroom stalls. Go figure.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way down to the Great Hall as well, a good time later, occasionally talking about the issues of the upcoming year. They sat down next to Danny, got some food, and began to look at their schedules.

"Let's see," Ron said. "I've got History of Magic, double Potions, Divination and double Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Same, except I've got Intro to Healing today as well," Harry added. "So I don't get a free period. Which I need more than ever if I'm going to have to memorize human anatomy."

"We can spare some time to help," Ron and Hermione offered, the former much to the surprise of the latter and Harry. They both gave the redhead strange and stunned looks, which Ron noticed.

"Considering all the trouble we get into," Ron told the two of them, "if someone's going to be learning healing we should probably give them a hand, since we're probably going to be overworking them."

"Fair point," Harry conceded.

"Besides you seem really into this," Ron continued. "Couldn't hurt to lend a mate a hand."

"Thanks," Harry replied.

"So Harry's going to be learning healing now," came the voice of Fred or George from behind them. "Any chance we could hire your services?"

"It would make testing our Skiving Snackboxes easier," said the other twin. "Harry wait, that was a separate sentence! No hexes!"

"I guess it was," Harry replied, lowering his wand. "Sorry, my services aren't for sale. You have to perform a series of quests instead. For one, explain how Danny got down here so quickly."

"Uh-" Danny tried to think of an explanation, but failed. "Luck? I don't know."

Hermione, Ron, and Harry gave him a suspicious look before turning back to their schedules.

"Right, speaking of your snackboxes," Hermione changed topics, eyeing Fred and George beadily, "you can't advertise for testers on the Gryffindor noticeboard."

"Says who," Fred shot back.

"Says me," Hermione told them. "And Ron."

"I thought I was just the minion," Ron said to her. "I don't have a say either way."

"And you'll be begging for some of our products later," George told her. "It's OWL year for you lot."

Hermione, Ron, Harry, Fred and George discussed OWLs, dropping out, market testing, and mysterious sources of gold for a little bit before Fred and George left. Harry quickly steered the conversation away from dangerous waters. Danny finished breakfast in the meantime.

"Hey, since I don't know my way around mind if I tag after you guys for the core classes?" Danny asked the group.

"Go ahead mate," Ron answered. "You can even copy the notes we copy from Hermione."

"Could you at least pretend like you're going to be paying attention this year?"

"Why bother? Your notes are a much better teacher than ghost-Binns. Oh wait, I think today is a spirit day so we'll be forced to pay attention whether we like to or not."

Danny felt a sudden sinking feeling in his stomach. He didn't know why.

"Still we got a bit of time to kill," Ron said. "We should just relax and have some more grub."

Danny shrugged. As long as he had the duplicate out there he could always use more energy.

After breakfast the group made their way to History of Magic/Modern Magical History. Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Danny all sat down in a row, in the order listed. There was no sign of Professor Binns anywhere, even after the period began.

Danny felt something tugging on the back of his mind. What was it-

"Just cooperate and this will go much smoother for you!" The class jumped when they heard spirit-Binn's voice echoing loudly through the hallways.

"No way!" Came another voice... and then Danny realized what had been tugging on the back of his mind. He stifled a groan and vowed to learn how to managed duplication and the connection between duplicates better.

"Your participation will aid the learning experience!" Binn's voice was louder this time.

"You'll never take me un-alive teacher!" There came a couple of small booms from the hallway and then Danny Phantom was flung through the doorway, smashing as he ragdolled into the room.

"Ouch," the halfa said, a wisp of smoke rising from his body. "How'd he do that with my own blast- Aw, dang it."

"Hello class," Binns said as he floated through the opening that used to be a door. "For our first class this year I have a special treat. Danny Phantom, guardian spirit of Amity Park, is spending some time in Great Britain and around Hogwarts. I thought he could come to class to answer a few questions and he graciously agreed."

During Binn's talk Phantom tried to go intangible and escape multiple times. Unfortunately for him, Professor Binns, as a spirit focused on recent history and its possible effects on the immediate future, could control time +/-1 second from the present moment in an area of his choosing and see one second into the future if he desired. Due to his slow reaction time the professor couldn't utilize this ability very well in a combat situation, he had to have a good idea of what was going to happen several seconds into the future. Luckily Danny's reactions were a bit predictable in the current circumstances, so it was easy to keep him under control. First he reversed time for part of one of Danny's ecto-blasts, making the beam explode as its own energy turned against itself. And he also kept reversing Danny's attempt to escape through the floor. The class was treated to the sight of Danny Phantom slipping partway through the floor only to instantly return to his previous position.

He would often use these powers to make students pay attention. 'Twas a pity they didn't work in his shade form, or that said form had no desire to use the powers.

Phantom eventually gave up trying to escape and turned to the class. The class itself wasn't overawed by his arrival. He was a known figure in the magical world, but not a celebrity or anything of the sort. And it wasn't the first time Professor Binns had dragged a protesting modern day historical figure into the classroom either. It didn't happen often but it happened enough that the class wasn't at all surprised that he had gotten his mitts on Phantom.

The halfa answered questions about the spirits he had encountered, about dealing with muggle ghost fighters, and about his fight with Pariah Dark. Both he and Binns did a decent job of keeping attention away from Danny Fenton while this was going on, though the class looked at the american boy a couple of times when his parents were mentioned. This lasted halfway through the class, until Phantom slipped away while Binns was distracted.

"Drat," Binns said, snapping his fingers. "He's a slippery one. I'll have to catch him again before my next class. We'll have to continue our discussion without him."

They talked a bit about the implications of Pariah Dark's attack on the mortal world, and how it affected policies in various magical governments. Then class was over and Binns sped off to catch Phantom again.

"Poor bloke," Harry said pityingly. "Hope he manages to escape."

"Yeah," Danny agreed. "But what sort of teacher assigns homework on the first day?"

"It's nothing to worry about," Hermione reassured him. "It's only a bit of light reading."

Ron and Harry rolled their eyes. 'Light' was not an accurate way to describe the reading that they had been assigned.

"So what's next?" Danny asked, looking at his schedule.

"It's a free period for you and me," Ron told the halfa. "But these two have got other classes to go to."

"Intro to Healing," Harry informed the American. "And Hermione's got half a dozen classes it could be."

Hermione merely sniffed and turned her head away in an affronted manner.

Intro to Healing was taught by one of Madame Pomfrey's assistants. The wizard informed them that this class would weed out anyone who wasn't serious about pursuing the Healing branches of magic and only the most dedicated would still be there by the end of the semester when they could sign up for the next classes in the series.

Harry didn't bat an eye. There was enough blood and death in his past to handle whatever this course threw at him.

The spent the rest of the class going over basic human anatomy. The teacher warned them that their first test would be on anatomy and each class in the series would include anatomy lessons and tests. After the first test they would begin to learn some basic healing spells.

After that class came Potions. After the events of the summer Harry was sure that his first Potions lesson of the year would be interesting. Not fun, or informative, or pleasant, but interesting nonetheless.

* * *

AN: Don't forget to review.


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